








tei|M 









^sTLE^> 
■ 

Erf 







Class 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




Judge Johx F. Phillips. 

Colonel Seventh Missouri Federal Cavalry, commanding Brown's 
Brigade of Pleasanton's Army in the Battle of Westport. 



THE BATTLE 



o 



r WESTPORT 



BY 

PAUL B. JENKINS. 



COMPILED FROM THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE 
ARMIES, FROM BIOGRAPHIES, STATEMENTS OF PARTICIPANTS, FEDERAL 
AND CONFEDERATE OFFICERS, EYE-WITNESSES, PRIVATE SOURCES, 
NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS OF THE TIME, ETC., ETC. ACCOMPANIED BY 
HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED MAPS OF THE BATTLE-FIELDS REPRO- 
DUCED FROM GOVERNMENT ORIGINALS, SHOWING MOVE- 
MENTS OF THE TROOPS ENGAGED, ETC. ILLUSTRATED 
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE IMPORTANT SITES MEN- 
TIONED, OF RELICS OF THE BATTLE, ETC., ESPE- 
CIALLY TAKEN FOR THIS WORK. TO WHICH 
IS ADDED AN APPENDIX CONTAINING THE 
FIRST COMPLETE STATEMENT OF THE 
ORGANIZATION OF THE THREE AR- 
MIES ENGAGED, AND AN IN- 
DEX OF INDIVIDUALS AND 
TROOPS MENTIONED. 



FRANKLIN HUDSON PUBLISHING CO., 

KANSAS CITY, MO. 

1906. 



v ^congress! 

i«s Receded 

JUL i VJOB 

lllCCu J" if $ 

CUHY A. 



Copyrighted, 1906, 

by 

PAUL B. JENKINS, 






PREFACE. 

The; student of military and political history will 
readily note a marked resemblance between the engage- 
ments fought on July ist to 3d, 1863, before Gettysburg, 
in the State of Pennsylvania, and that of October 21st to 
23d, 1864, near Kansas City, in the State of Missouri. 
Barring only the numbers engaged and the corresponding 
losses, the battles of Gettysburg and of Westport had 
much in common. Each was the result of a campaign of 
invasion planned by the Confederate War Department 
for the purpose of severing the Union territory at the 
point of attack, the one in the East, the other in the West. 
Each such campaign was intended seriously to embarrass 
the Federal defence by necessitating the summoning of 
distant forces to resist the invasion, thus setting other 
Confederate forces freer to conduct their own lines of ac- 
tion. Each seriously threatened the principal cities in 
the invaded territory, and in each case that territory was 
chosen for the reason that it contained such places of im- 
portance — Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia in 
the eastern campaign ; St. Louis, Kansas City and the im- 
portant military post of Fort Leavenworth in the western. 
The engagement in which each campaign culminated oc- 
cupied three days of incessant fighting, and the defeat to 
the Confederate arms with which each closed put an end 
forever to further attempts at carrying the war north- 
ward in their respective portions of the Union. Each 
such defeat established one of the two high-tide marks of 

5 



6 Preface. 

the Confederacy, the one in the East, the other in the 
West. And, finally, each period of three days' conflict 
composed, in numbers and importance of results attained, 
the largest and most decisive land battle of the Civil War 
in its respective portion of the two great natural divisions 
of the United States, the territories lying respectively 
east and west of the Mississippi River. 

In spite, however, of the importance that may be thus 
justly claimed for the series of actions known as the Battle 
of Westport, those actions and their results have received 
but scant attention from the historians of the "Great 
Conflict." The reasons for that neglect are not difficult 
to ascertain. There were but few writers, scholars, stu- 
dents and West Point graduates on the more western 
field or in the ranks of Price's, Curtis' and Pleasanton's 
armies. Their numbers were from the Ozark mountains 
of Arkansas, the farms of Missouri and the prairies of 
Kansas. Theirs was no mere political strife; it was the 
combat of men who fought for the very soil over which 
they charged, and backed with their muskets the opinions 
taught them at their mothers' breasts. If the strategy of 
Yorktown and Waterloo was absent from their maneu- 
vres in the field, at least they knew well how to forge rude 
sabers at the blacksmith's anvil, or to handle rifles that 
had already rendered good service at Chapultepec or 
checked the yelling rush of Arapahoe and Pawnee. Then, 
their battle over, they mustered themselves out of service, 
plowed the earthworks under, and set about building 
cities as the sole monument of charge and counter-charge, 
until to-day school-houses dot the battle-field and church- 
spires fine the historic "Trail." 



Preface. 7 

As to the sources from which the accompanying nar- 
rative has been drawn it must suffice to say that the list 
is far too long for enumeration. It includes every pub- 
lished volume that has dealt in any way with the history 
of the Union, the West, the States of Missouri and Kansas 
and their cities, during the year 1864, or with the par- 
ticular campaign itself. It includes the 103 reports of 
officers of every rank which were submitted to the War 
Departments of the United States and of the Confederacy 
respectively at the close of Price's campaign. It includes 
the personal narratives of five leading officers and half an 
hundred or more other veterans, participants in the cam- 
paign and its engagements, who have kindly given the 
benefit of their recollections. 

The writer — if such title the present compiler may 
claim — is the sole male member of his family since 1776 
who has not at some time worn the uniform of the United 
States Army. That honor denied him, it has for years 
been his hope to add in some slight way to that literature 
which contains the noble record of those Americans, who, 
on countless fields, have fought for the right as God has 
given them to see the right. Ten years ago, on becoming 
a resident in the vicinity of this all too little-known field 
of one of the decisive conflicts of the Civil War, he began 
the study of the events that culminated in that action. 
Finding that not one adequate account of those events 
had been written since 1865, he undertook the collection 
of notes, studies and interviews which he hoped might 
one day tell the story of the Battle of Westport — the 
Western Gettysburg. That story is contained in the 
pages which follow. — P. B. J. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter. Page. 

I. Early Life of Sterling Price 1 1 

II. First Services of Price to the Confederacy . . . . 19 

III. Plan and First Movements of the Missouri Campaign . 26 

IV. Price's Movements up to Jefferson City. Preparations 

Against His Advance 36 

V. Engagements at the Little Blue, Independence, and the 

Big Blue 55 

VI. The Battle of Westport. From Dawn to Eight O'clock 80 

VII. The Battle of Westport. From Eight O'clock to Noon 103 

VIII. The Battle of Westport. From Noon to Two O'clock . 139 

IX. The Retreat and the End of the Campaign . . . . 1 48 

Appendix 159 

1. Organization of Price's Army. "The Army of the 

Trans-Mississippi" 161 

2. Organization of Curtis' Army, "The Army of the Bor- 

der" 166 

3. Organization of Pleasant on' s Army, "The Army of the 

Department of the Missouri" 170 

4. Comparison of Numbers Engaged in the Battle of 
£ Westport and in Other Battles of the Civil War 

West of the Mississippi 173 

5. The "Reynolds' Manuscript" on Sterling Price and the 

Confederacy 175 

Index of Individuals and Troops Mentioned 183 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY LIFE OF STERLING PRICE. 

THE third and last great "raid" made by General 
Sterling Price, C. S. A., into the State of Missouri 
was, in spite of this its common name, no such 
irregular and unofficial an expedition as, for in- 
stance the attack of Quantrill and his band on the town 
of Lawrence, Kansas. It ought properly to be called an 
invasion rather than a raid, inasmuch as it was a military 
movement on the part of a force numbering 10,000 men, 
definitely planned and ordered by the Confederate War 
Department for strategic reasons, executed by an army 
organized for the purpose and formally entrusted to the 
command of a former Brigadier-General of the United 
States Army, a veteran of the Mexican War, Governor of 
the State of Missouri from 1852 to 1856, and a prominent 
officer of the Confederate forces in the immediately pre- 
ceding actions of the War. 

Sterling Price was by birth a Virginian, born in Prince 
Edward County, in 1809, of intelligent and fairly well-to- 
do parents. His youth had been spent in the local 
schools, in a course at Hampden-Sidney College in his 
native county, and in the study of law. In 1831 his 
father moved with his family to a farm in Chariton 
County, Missouri, which place became Sterling Price's 
home up to his death in the epidemic of cholera in St. 
Louis in 1867. Young Price had no small ability, for he 



12 The Battle oe Westport. 

had lived in Missouri but nine years when, in 1840, he 
was elected a member of the State Legislature and was 
immediately made Speaker of the House, an unusual 
honor for a man so young and so comparatively unknown 
throughout the State. For several years thereafter he 
was the principal public figure in both civil and military 
affairs in the State. In 1846 he was elected to Congress 
and took his seat, but remained in Washington only a 
short time. Two reasons have been assigned for his res- 
ignation. One is that there was certain vigorous and 
bitter criticism of him in his home State; the other that 
he wished to take part in the then impending war with 
Mexico. It is not definitely known to-day what was the 
cause of the criticism and opposition to him at home, 
though the existence of such feeling is mentioned by all 
his biographers. It is but fair to believe that a desire to 
enter the military service of his country was as large a 
factor in his decision to resign from Congress as any other 
motive, for he had no sooner reached Missouri on his re- 
turn than he began to raise a force of volunteers to take 
part in the first move that the United States might make, 
and in this design he and his men were successful. 

The immediate matter in dispute between the United 
States and Mexico was the claim of the former that the 
cession of the Territory of Texas included the country 
between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, a claim 
which Mexico denied, refusing accordingly to yield the 
territory thus bounded. In March, 1846, President Polk 
ordered General Zachary Taylor to occupy the disputed 
soil, and this he did with a force of 2,300 men. In May, 
General Ampudia attacked Taylor with 6,000 Mexicans 



The Battle oe Westport. 13 

and was severely defeated at Palo Alto. On May 13th, 
the United States declared war against Mexico and called 
for 50,000 volunteers, General Stephen W. Kearney being 
instructed to assemble the first forces at Fort Leaven- 
worth, to form them into the "Army of the West," and 
to proceed at once to Santa Fe. Two practically complete 
regiments were almost immediately at General Kear- 
ney's disposal, known as the First and Second Missouri 
Mounted Volunteers, the first having been raised by Colonel 
A. W. Doniphan, of Clay County, Missouri, the second by 
Sterling Price, who was at once commissioned Colonel of 
his force. With the addition of a few less complete 
forces — three squadrons of the First United States 
Dragoons under Major Sumner and two batteries of ar- 
tillery under Major M. L. Clark, one of them the famous 
"Battery A" of St. Louis — these composed General 
Kearney's expedition, and they started at once on the 
long march of 900 miles from Fort Leavenworth to the 
town of Santa Fe. The force was divided for the journey 
into two divisions, the first containing all except Price's 
regiment, the second that body alone. Their line of 
march was that which later became famous as the "Santa 
Fe" Trail." 

Francis Parkman, the historian, at this time engaged 
on his tour of the Western plains, has left us (The Oregon 
Trail, chap, xxvi) a most picturesque description of Kear- 
ney's army and its odd and irregular advance on this 
campaign. He met them on the Upper Arkansas, and 
after commenting on meeting a company or two a day, 
straggling along and hunting or resting on their way, 
he^says : 



14 The Battle of Westport. 

"No men ever embarked upon a military expedition 
with a greater love for the work before them than the 
Missourians; but if discipline and subordination are the 
criterion of merit, they were worthless soldiers indeed. 
Yet when their exploits have rung through all America, 
it would be absurd to deny that they were excellent ir- 
regular troops. Their victories were gained in the teeth 
of every established precedent of warfare, and were 
owing to a combination of military qualities in the men 
themselves. Doniphan's regiment marched through New 
Mexico more like a band of free companions than like the 
paid soldiers of a modern government. When General 
Taylor complimented him on his success at Sacramento 
and elsewhere, the Colonel's reply very well illustrates 
the relations which subsisted between the officers and men 
of his command. 

" 'I don't know anything of the maneuvres. The 
boys kept coming to me to let them charge ; and when I 
saw a good opportunity, I told them they might go. 
They were off like a shot, and that 's all I know about it.' 
"Price's soldiers, whom we now met, were men from 
the same neighborhood, precisely similar in character, 
manners, and appearance. There were some ruffian faces 
among them, and some haggard with debauchery ; but on 
the whole they were extremely good-looking men, superior 
beyond measure to the ordinary rank and file of an army. 
Except that they were booted to the knees, they wore 
their belts and military trappings over the ordinary dress 
of citizens. Besides their swords and holster pistols, they 
carried slung from their saddles the excellent Springfield 
carbines, loaded at the breech." (In this last sentence 



The Battle oe Westport. 15 

Parkman seems to have fallen into the error of using a 
popular misnomer for the arm mentioned. There was in 
1846 no "Springfield" breech -loading carbine in use in 
the army of the United States. It is true that Jenk's 
breech-loading carbine, manufactured for the Govern- 
ment by the Ames Arms Company of Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts, was in use, but only in the navy. It is prac- 
tically certain that the carbine alluded to was the famous 
Hall's breech-loading carbine with the tip-up breech- 
block, issued in both flint and percussion-lock, well 
known historically as the first breech-loading arm offi- 
cially adopted by any government. It, however, was 
manufactured at the Harper's Ferry Arsenal. At this 
date its inventor, Colonel John H. Hall, was living in 
Missouri, whence these troops came and where he and his 
invention were alike widely popular, and many arms 
with his invention are known to have been used in the 
Mexican War.) 

On arriving at Santa Fe with the first column, Kearney 
took possession of the country in the name of the United 
States, appointed a former Missourian, William Bent, of 
St. I/Ouis, as Governor, placed Doniphan in command of 
the military, and, before Price's column had arrived, set 
off with 200 dragoons for California, with the intention of 
seizing that territory also for the Union. During the en- 
suing winter there occurred an incident which made for 
Price at least one bitter enemy, one whose enmity en- 
dured, as we shall see, implacable throughout their life- 
times, and, strangely enough, deeply affected in later 
years the history of the West and the checkered fortunes 
of the Confederacy. Throughout the entire military 



1 6 The Battle of Westport. 

career of Sterling Price — that is to say, throughout his 
lifetime — it was always true of him that he was among 
the most lax of supposed disciplinarians. Parkman's 
quoted description of the troops under him on his first 
campaign affirms it, while during his Confederate career 
his warmest admirers were forced to admit, though they 
strove to excuse it, and his enemies made capital of the 
fact until he was in his grave. 

Hard upon Kearney's departure for California, Doni- 
phan, after a few minor engagements with the Navajo 
Indians, was ordered to Chihuahua, thus leaving Colonel 
Price in command at Santa Fe. Of Price's failure to 
keep either the surrounding country or his own soldiers 
sufficiently under control the treacherous Mexicans and 
Pueblo Indians took advantage, plotting the recapture of 
the place from the possession of the United States. They 
succeeded in raising a revolt and in butchering Governor 
Bent (January 19th, 1847) and several other Americans, 
but were then compelled to flee before Price's vengeance. 
With 500 of his Missourians Price pursued the insurgents 
through the small towns of Canada, Moro, and the cele- 
brated Pueblo de Taos. Among the most treasured pos- 
sessions of the Missouri Historical Society of St. Louis 
there may be seen the small silk American flag carried by 
the before-mentioned Battery A, and which bears the 
names of these towns as those where the battery partici- 
pated in the fighting. At the last-named place the Mex- 
icans attempted to make a stand against their pursuers 
by barricading a church and two ancient Indian "pu- 
eblos" and holding them as a fort, but Price and his men 
cut through the adobe walls with axes and intrepidly en- 



The Battle of Westport. 17 

tered and seized the improvised stronghold. In ten days 
the revolt was crushed, Price having lost 47 men killed as 
against the Mexicans' 285. Yet it was undeniable that 
only the most regrettably lax vigilance on Price's part 
had made the uprising possible. 

Among the officers of the United States forces in this 
campaign there was a Colonel Jefferson Davis, a Missis- 
sippian, who had also been a member of Congress, and, 
like Price, had resigned to take part in the war. He had 
raised the First Mississippi Volunteers, with whom he had 
accompanied General Zachary Taylor's expedition, and 
was wounded at the battle of Buena Vista. From the date 
of the Mexican revolt at Santa Fe\ Davis professed the ut- 
most contempt for the unmilitary negligence that alone 
had made it possible, a feeling which was often publicly 
shown in the form of a marked personal animosity to- 
ward Price, with whom he had in later years more than 
one unconcealed exchange of bitter personalities. 

The United States Government, however, did not look 
as seriously on the affair at Santa Fe as Davis did, for in 
the same year Price was commissioned a Brigadier-Gen- 
eral. Davis was also offered a similar commission by 
President Polk, but refused it on the ground that "a mil- 
itary appointment by a Federal executive was unconsti- 
tutional." Immediately after this promotion Price was 
ordered into Mexican territory to take the post of Military 
Governor of Chihuahua. Here the Mexicans endeavored 
again to catch him off his guard, but Price had learned 
something about Mexicans, and when they brought him 
false reports that peace had been made, instead of be- 
lieving their news he promptly attacked the town of 



1 8 The Battle of Westport. 

Santa Cruz de Rosales, in which engagement he lost 45 
men as against the defenders' loss of 300 in killed, wound- 
ed and captured. This was the last action of any note 
in which he took part during the Mexican War. At its 
close he returned to his farm in Chariton County, Mis- 
souri, and for the next ten or twelve years was probably 
the most popular and most widely known single citizen 
of the State, being elected Governor in 1852. His term 
of office was uneventful and at its close he returned once 
more to the farm. 



CHAPTER II. 



FIRST SERVICES OF PRICE TO THE CONFEDERACY. 

THE Southern friends of Sterling Price have always 
claimed that he was originally "a Union man," 
and such he seems indeed to have been according 
to his own interpretation of the term. He be- 
lieved in the existence and maintenance of a union among 
the various States, but he believed also that that Union 
had no rights that were superior to any possessed by the 
individual States. To him each State and each State 
Government was supreme within its own boundaries, and 
this belief guided his future conduct, as will presently ap- 
pear. When the movement toward secession was spread- 
ing from one to another of the Southern States, a con- 
vention was called in the State of Missouri (February 
28th, 1 861) to determine whether it also should secede. 
Of this now famous Convention Sterling Price was elected 
President, and the historic decision was reached that it 
should not secede. 

Presently, however, Camp Jackson, near St. Louis — 
where the militia that sympathized with the Confederacy 
was being assembled by order of Governor Claiborne 
Jackson — was forcibly seized by Captain Nathaniel Lyon, 
of the Second United States Infantry, and 1,000 men, an 
act which to Sterling Price was a direct violation of the 
cherished doctrine of "States' Rights." At once he of- 
fered his services and his sword, not to the Confederate 

19 
—2— 



20 The Battle oe Westport. 

Government, but to the Governor himself, and at that 
official's direction began to raise an army to be known as 
the "Missouri State Guards." Over this force he refused 
at first to lift the "stars and bars" of the Confederacy, 
but flew instead the State flag of Missouri. In com- 
pany with other regular and irregular Confederate forces 
he and his men took part in the battles of Wilson's Creek, 
near Springfield, Missouri (August ioth, 1861); the 
famous "hemp-bale" siege and assault of the Masonic 
College at Lexington, Missouri (September nth-2oth, 
1 861), where the victory over the Federal garrison under 
Colonel J. A. Mulligan was claimed for Price and raised 
him high in the Southern esteem; Pea Ridge, Arkansas 
(March 7th-8th, 1862); and other minor skirmishes. At 
Pea Ridge lie was slightly wounded in the right forearm 
by a musket-ball on the second day of the battle, but 
with his arm in a sling continued to direct his troops. 
In this battle the victorious Federal troops were under 
the command of Brigadier-General S. R. Curtis, whom 
Price was destined one day to meet again. 

After the battle of Pea Ridge, Price abandoned the 
idea of supporting Missouri alone, hoisted the Confed- 
erate flag, offered his services to President Jefferson 
Davis, and, his corps being officially designated as the 
"Army of the West," was sent to cooperate with Major- 
General Earl Van Dorn's "Army of West Tennessee," 
east of the Mississippi. This was in April of 1862, by the 
9th of which month the forces of Van Dorn and Price 
joined those of Bragg, Polk, Hardee, and Breckinridge at 
Corinth, Mississippi, under General G. T. Beauregard, a 
total of some 80,000 men. No sooner were these troops 



The; Battle; of Wejstport. 21 

assembled than Major-General Halleck began to move 
against them with his army of 110,000 men, and by 
strategic advances, elaborate intrenchments at every 
halt, the use of heavy siege-guns, etc., forced the Confed- 
erates to evacuate Corinth (May 29th) without a battle, 
and to retreat to Tupelo, fifty-two miles south, to which 
point Halleck and his army did not pursue. 

At this time ensued the climax of Jefferson Davis' 
manifestations of his hostility to General Price. In the 
month of June, Van Dorn, Beauregard, Bragg and others 
united in urging Davis to place Price in command of the 
entire Confederate forces west of the Mississippi. While 
there was in the Confederacy a decided difference of sen- 
timent toward Price, some (George C. Vest, Major E. C. 
Cabell, Thomas C. Reynolds, and Jefferson Davis himself) 
intimating frankly that they suspected Price of a plot to 
remove Davis from the Presidency by a popular move- 
ment and proclaim himself President or Generalissimo, 
yet the feeling of these particular fellow-officers toward 
him, and the high esteem in which he was held by a large 
element among the Southern people of the West, may be 
inferred from the letter which Van Dorn wrote Davis 
concerning the matter, saying: "The love of the people 
of Missouri is so strong for General Price, and his prestige 
as a commander is so strong there, that wisdom would 
seem to dictate that he be put at the head of affairs in the 
West." Price himself, with several of his staff, went to 
Richmond to present this request in person, being re- 
ceived along the route by the people of the South with 
the utmost admiration, cordiality and honor. Recep- 
tions, fetes and entertainments were accorded him, even 



22 The Battle of Westport. 

in Richmond itself, and even his enemies were compelled 
to admit that at this time he was the Confederate military 
hero of the hour. 

But Davis' enmity to Price remained unaltered. 
Colonel Thomas L. Snead of Missouri, ever the warmest of 
Price's admirers and the staunchest of his defenders, was 
present at the interview between Price and Davis and 
from his account we quote the following : 

"The President said that he had determined not to 
let the General and the Missourians return to the trans - 
Mississippi. 'Well, Mr. President,' said General Price, 
with the utmost respect and courtesy, 'if you will not let 
me serve you, I will nevertheless serve my country. I 
will send you my resignation, and go back to Missouri 
and raise another army there without your assistance, 
and fight again under the flag of Missouri, and win new 
victories for the South in spite of the Government.' 

"No one who ever encountered Jefferson Davis in au- 
thority can ever forget the measured articulation with 
which he gave force to his words addressed to one who 
presumed to oppose his wishes or to refuse obedience to 
his will. His eye flashed with anger and his tone was 
contemptuous as he replied with measured slowness: 
'Your resignation will be promptly accepted, General. 
And if you do go back to Missouri and raise another army, 
and win victories for the South, or do it any service at all, 
no one will be more pleased than myself, or' — after a 
pause which was intended to emphasize, and did empha- 
size, the words which followed — 'or more surprised!' 

" 'Then I will surprise you, sir!' exclaimed General 
Price, bringing his clenched fist down upon the table with 



The; Battle of Westport. 23 

a violence which set the ink-stands on it a-dancing; and 
out he went, indignant and furious, to return to his hotel 
and forward his resignation." 

Nor was this quoted account quite all the scene, for 
while Price was writing his resignation, Colonel Snead 
told the story publicly, in front of the Spottswood Hotel 
tore from his uniform the insignia of his Confederate rank, 
and repeated Price's avowal that he would go West and 
fight again under the Missouri flag. 

Contrary to his statement, however, Davis did not ac- 
cept Price's resignation, but sent word the next day that 
Price and the Missourians should go back across the Mis- 
sissippi "as soon as it could safely be done," until which 
time they were still left at Tupelo. 

But Price had no love for a campaign of inaction, and 
on September 18th he drove a small Federal garrison out 
of Iuka, 10 or 15 miles east of Corinth, taking possession of 
the town and a large amount of supplies. At Grant's or- 
ders Rosecrans immediately moved against Price with 
9,000 men, General E. O. C. Ord and 8,000 cooperating 
with him, and on the 19th inst. severely defeated him be- 
fore Iuka, forcing him back southward again. 

Undiscouraged, Price, throughout his entire career a 
most aggressive commander, next proposed to Van Dorn 
that they unite and attempt to drive the Federal forces 
out of northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, 
hoping to carry the movement clear to the Ohio. Price's 
army leading, they boldly advanced against Rosecrans' 
now strongly-fortified position at Corinth, which place 
they attempted to take by direct assault, on October 3d 
and 4th, in the fierce battle to which the name of the town 



24 The Battle of Westport. 

has been given. The action consisted of a series of most 
desperate assaults against the Federal batteries mounted 
en barbette around the town, Rosecrans himself saying, 
"It was about as good fighting on the part of the Confed- 
erates as I ever saw," but the Confederates were repulsed 
with the disastrous loss to Price of 2,100 men, or over 10 
per cent of his entire command. In this battle Brigadier- 
General W. L. Cabell commanded a brigade in Maury's 
division and Colonel W. F. Slemons commanded the 
Second Arkansas Cavalry, both of which officers were 
later with Price in Missouri. Another of Price's officers 
was Colonel Francis M. Cockrell, who commanded the 
Second Missouri Infantry. 

After this culminating reverse, General Price and 
many of his Missouri troops returned west of the Missis- 
sippi. For the next year and a half, or up to the prep- 
aration for his last and greatest campaign, his activities 
consisted chiefly in participation in the battles of Helena, 
Arkansas (July 4th, 1863) and Camden, Arkansas (April 
20th, 1864), against Steele's expedition. 

In personal appearance Sterling Price was tall and very 
large, six feet two inches in height and of massive propor- 
tions save for his hands and feet, which were small for 
one of his size. During the years of his life with which 
this narrative deals he grew increasingly heavier and 
corpulent, until constant horseback-riding became dis- 
agreeable and he preferred to travel in a carriage or am- 
bulance, both of which, drawn by mules, accompanied his 
headquarters in the field. Commonly smooth-shaven, as 
in the excellent oil-painting of him preserved by the Mis- 
souri Historical Society of St. Louis, the exigencies of 



The Battle; of Wsstport. 25 

army life often compelled him to wear the beard shown 
in many of his pictures, and it is thus that he is seen as 
the central figure in Wilson's painting of the battle of 
Pea Ridge, formerly owned by the Southern Historical 
Society of St. Louis, now in the Missouri Room of the 
Confederate Museum at Richmond. He was a masterly 
horseman, and in earlier years and the prime of life spent 
much of his time in the saddle, invariably selecting large 
and spirited animals for his mounts whenever possible. 



CHAPTER III. 



PLAN AND FIRST MOVEMENTS OF THE MISSOURI CAMPAIGN. 

IN the late spring of 1 864 the military forces of the Con- 
federacy consisted — not to go too far into other de- 
tails — of two large armies and three smaller forces. 
The larger bodies were the Army of Northern Virginia 
under General Robert E. Lee, on the southern bank of the 
Rapidan and confronting the Union Army of the Potomac ; 
and the Army of the Tennessee under General Joseph E. 
Johnston, at Dalton, Georgia, opposed to Sherman's army, 
then still at Chattanooga in preparation for its great 
movement to the east and southeast, against Atlanta 
and thence to the sea. The three smaller bodies of Con- 
federate soldiery were: first, a force guarding the great 
natural storehouse of the Shenandoah Valley; second, the 
cavalry force under General Forrest that was always 
threatening Tennessee; and, third, the Army of the De- 
partment of the Trans-Mississippi, in the Southern States 
west of the Mississippi and under General E. Kirby Smith, 
he having charge of that Department. It is with this last 
army that the remainder of our story wholly deals. 
North of the Louisiana line it consisted chiefly of troops 
from Arkansas and Missouri and among its officers were 
Major-General Sterling Price, Brigadier-General Joseph 
O. Shelby, Major-General John S. Marmaduke, Major- 
General James F. Fagan, and Brigadier-General W. L. 
Cabell — names all well known to the war history of the 

26 



The Battle of Westport. 27 

South and West — their headquarters being in various 
small towns in Arkansas and along the western bank of 
the Mississippi. 

At this time, early in the summer of 1864, General E. 
Kirby Smith was weighing the question of what disposal 
to make of this force at his command. Those were not 
wanting who urged that it be sent east to join and coop- 
erate with the Confederate forces under either Lee or 
Johnston. Among those who made this plea was Gen- 
eral "Dick" Taylor, who went so far as to secure a prom- 
ise from President Jefferson Davis that should the army 
cross the Mississippi eastward, as he urged, it should be 
placed under him. This command he never received, 
for the army never came. More than one Southern au- 
thority affirms that E. Kirby Smith hated Taylor so that 
he was unwilling to satisfy him by giving him the army, 
and that this was one reason for its being sent into Mis- 
souri instead. Be this as it may, the Confederate officers 
named — Price, Shelby, Marmaduke, Fagan, Cabell, 
Thomas C. Reynolds, etc. — brought much pressure on 
Smith to entrust the army to them and send it at once 
into Missouri. They advanced the claims that this move 
would compel the Federal Government to divert a large 
part of their eastern forces into Missouri to meet it, and 
would thus affect the Union cause in both West and East, 
weakening Sherman, Grant and Thomas, setting Dee and 
Johnston correspondingly freer from opposition, and pos- 
sibly adding enormously to the strength of the Confed- 
eracy by the seizure of Missouri and eastern Kansas. 
This view Kirby Smith favored, and orders were issued 
to the Army of the Trans-Mississippi to prepare for an in- 



28 The Battle of Westport. 

vasion of Missouri under the command and leadership of 
Major-General Sterling Price. Of this plan of campaign 
it was said, and that by a Northern officer and within a 
year of the close of the war, that "in distance from base, 
in country traversed, and in objects aimed at," it "was 
hardly less stupendous in character than those which 
have illumined in luster the name of General Sherman." 

With a view to further weakening the Union cause in 
the West and correspondingly strengthening the Confed- 
erate arms, secret correspondence was begun by Generals 
Smith and Price with the secret organizations of Confed- 
erate sympathizers whose "lodges" were numerous in 
Missouri and were claimed to be almost as numerous in 
Illinois. In Missouri they were known as the "Order of 
the American Knights of the State of Missouri," in Ill- 
inois they were the "Knights of the Golden Circle." 
Both Kirby Smith and Price looked for large accessions 
from among the membership of these societies, Price 
openly asserting that he had received promises from them 
that they would join him to the number of 30,000 men. 
It was even a part of the original plan of campaign to 
form these particular accessions into a separate division, 
over which Brigadier-General W. L. Cabell was to be 
placed in command. (See the Appendix, Organization 
of Price's Army.) As none of this hoped-for reinforce- 
ment ever developed, it may be remarked that the reason 
why these friends of the Confederacy were unable to 
assist Price to any extent was that General Rosecrans, 
commanding the Federal Department of the Missouri 
with headquarters at St. Louis, kept close watch on the 
"rebel societies," as he called them, and, as soon as Price 




Brigadier-General W. L. Cabell. 
Commanding Cabell's brigade, Shelby's division, Price's army. 



The; Battle of Westport. 31 

started, Rosecrans arrested and placed in jail the presi- 
dent, secretary, treasurer, and many other members of 
the Missouri society. The president proved to be none 
other than the Belgian consul at St. Louis. 

Price's army was to consist of three divisions, to be 
commanded respectively by Major-General James F. 
Fagan, Major-General John S. Marmaduke, and Brigadier- 
General Joseph O. Shelby. Fagan's division consisted of 
four brigades and one "unattached" body of troops, and 
numbered, all told, twenty regiments of cavalry, one bat- 
tery of artillery, and one additional section of a battery. 
Marmaduke's division consisted of two brigades, num- 
bering ten regiments of cavalry, two batteries of artillery, 
and one company of engineers. Shelby's division con- 
tained three brigades, with thirteen regiments of cavalry 
and one battery of artillery. (For regiments, officers, 
etc., see the Appendix.) It should be understood that 
many of these "regiments" were in reality but handfuls 
of men, probably not one numbering anything like full 
strength. All in all, Price started with close to 10,000 
men, all of whom were mounted. His artillery consisted 
chiefly of twelve-pounder mountain howitzers and small 
field-pieces, with one or two remarkable products of 
rustic blacksmith shops. He had, however, at least 
eight large Parrott rifled guns (twenty-pounders), of 
which two had been captured from Federal forces at 
Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, by General "Dick" Taylor; 
two from the Eighth Indiana Volunteer Battery, cap- 
tured by General Marmaduke at Poison Springs and 
Camden, Arkansas; and four taken by Fagan at Mark's 
Mill, Arkansas. A large portion of his small-arms and 



32 The Battle of Westport. 

ammunition had also been captured from Federal forces 
in the disasters that had befallen the Union arms on the 
Red River expedition. A considerable proportion of the 
muskets with which his men were armed had been im- 
ported by the Confederacy from England, through Mex- 
ico, such, for instance, being the Enfield rifles with which 
Cabell's brigade was armed. Price also started with a 
surprisingly large wagon-train of baggage and other 
equipment, numbering not less than three hundred 
wagons. During the progress of the invasion this was in- 
creased by raids, etc., to the remarkable total of five 
hundred wagons. 

Of the generals commanding these divisions of Price's 
army, at least two must receive more than passing 
mention. 

John S. Marmaduke was a man of marked intellectual 
ability and high sense of honor. A Missourian by birth, 
born in Saline County, he was thirty-four years of age at 
this time, and had spent many earlier years as a student 
at Chapel Hill College, Lafayette County, Missouri ; at the 
Masonic College at Lexington, Missouri ; at Yale and Har- 
vard Colleges, and had graduated from West Point in 1857. 
He had thus enjoyed all the advantages of wealth, social 
position, wide education and thorough military training, 
having been a Lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry, 
U.S.A., with Albert Sidney Johnston's expedition against 
the Mormons. He was a man of handsome and dis- 
tinguished bearing, and a striking figure in the field, with 
his tall physique, clear complexion, and long, light mus- 
tache, and invariably wore an officer's soft hat, turned up 
at the left side and fastened with a silver crescent. Dur- 



The; Battxi; of Westport. 33 

ing the entire campaign he rode a very fine mare of which 
he was very proud, a beautifully saddle-gaited animal, 
which he called "Miss Mary Price." Later in life he be- 
came Governor of Missouri, in 1884, but died in that 
office, and over his grave at Jefferson City the State has 
erected a monument. 

Joseph O. Shelby was by birth a Kentuckian, educated 
at Transylvania University and in Philadelphia, and set- 
tling in Lafayette County, Missouri, in 1849. Lacking 
the military training of Marmaduke, he was yet among 
the most daring of cavalry officers, and the fame of 
"Shelby's charges" endures to-day. After the war he 
was among those who for a time cast in their lot with 
Maximilian in Mexico, but soon returned to his native 
land, and at the time of his death in 1897 was United 
States Marshal of the Western District of Missouri. 

There is a slight disagreement — which may be a mere 
technicality — between various writers and authorities as 
to where General Price assumed command of his army of 
invasion. His biographer, W. L- Webb, says in "Battles 
and Biographies of Missourians," that it was on August 
30th, at Tulip, Arkansas, but the Governmental records 
of the Civil War state that it was on August 29th, at 
Princeton, in the same State. It is certain, however, 
that his army entered Missouri on September 19th, 
crossing from Arkansas into Ripley County, near the 
southeastern corner of the State. On this date he also 
divided his force so as to cover the widest possible strip 
of country in his progress, and from his entrance into the 
State up to his detour around Jefferson City he advanced 
his army in three parallel columns, Marmaduke's^division 



34 The; Battle of Westport. 

on the right, Fagan and Price himself in the center, and 
Shelby on the left. The first skirmish occurred the next 
day, September 20th, when a detachment of the Third 
Missouri State Federal Militia Cavalry under a Lieutenant 
Erich Pape was driven out of Doniphan, in Doniphan 
County, and the little town was burned. 

As it is the series of engagements that led up to or 
composed the Battle of Westport that form the chief ob- 
ject of this history, rather than the details of Price's 
progress thither, we shall have to pass over much of his 
invasion by giving an outline of his itinerary from the 
State line up to his movements in the more immediate 
neighborhood of Kansas City. Thus his general line of 
march through the State was as follows : 

September 19th. — Entered Missouri in Ripley County. 

September 20th. — Burned Doniphan, in Doniphan 
County. 

September 22d. — At Greenville, Wayne County. 

September 28th. — Repulsed Federals under General 
Ewing at Pilot Knob, Iron County. 

October 2d. — At St. Clair, Franklin County. 

October 4th. — Crossed the Gasconade River, in Gas- 
conade County. 

October 5th. — Colonel David Shanks, Sixth Missouri 
Cavalry, Shelby's division, killed by a Federal scouting 
party while crossing the Osage River near Castle Rock. 

October 7th. — Attacked outposts at Jefferson City, 
Cole County. 

October 8th.— Withdrew and made detour south of 
Jefferson City. 

October 10th. — At Boonville, Cooper County. 

October 15th. — Took Glasgow, Howard County, after 
small fight. 



The Battle of Westport. 35 

October 19th. — Vigorous skirmish 3 miles south of 
Lexington, Lafayette County, with outposts of Blunt's 
Federal force on a scout near that town. 

October 21st. — Engagement at the Little Blue River, 
Jackson County. 



CHAPTER IV. 



PRICE'S MOVEMENTS TO JEFFERSON CITY. — PREP- 
ARATIONS AGAINST HIS ADVANCE. 

PRICE'S two previous smaller invasions of Missouri 
soil had been only too well known to the Federal 
authorities, and had been indeed such a bugbear 
to the citizens of the State that a common joke of 
the day was that in Missouri there were five seasons in 
the year — "spring, summer, fall, Price's raid, and winter." 
Nor were rumors of his coming confined to any one season, 
and it was not nntil it was certain that his army was 
actually well within the boundaries of the State that the 
Federal commanders realized the need of taking definite 
steps against him. 

Major-General W. S. Rosecrans, commanding the De- 
partment of the Missouri, as has been mentioned, with 
headquarters at St. Louis, was himself most incredulous 
in regard to Price's reported advance. As late as the 
24th of September he telegraphed to Major-General S. R. 
Curtis, at Fort Leavenworth that he did not credit the 
reports he had received, and as late as the 28th he was in- 
clined to believe that at most Price only contemplated a 
raid along the south bank of the Osage and possibly into 
Kansas. But when, within the next twenty-four hours, 
it began to seem as if St. Louis itself might actually be 
Price's first objective point, and that he was even then 
almost within striking distance ; and when it was learned — 

36 



The Battle of Westport. 37 

with amusing exaggerations — how considerable were the 
numbers of his army, the city had some exceedingly 
exciting days. 

Rosecrans telegraphed east for Major-General Alfred 
S. Pleasanton to come and take command of the forces 
in the field, Pleasanton having just been succeeded in the 
command of the cavalry in the Shenandoah by General 
"Phil" Sheridan. He also issued a call through the State 
of Illinois for all the men that could be raised, and sum- 
moned the entire available strength of the (Federal) Mis- 
souri Enrolled Militia. In response to the first of these 
summons there came to St. Louis five regiments of new 
hundred -days' volunteers from Illinois, all infantry — the 
One Hundred and Thirty-second, One Hundred and 
Thirty-fourth, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth, One 
Hundred and Fortieth, and the One Hundred and Forty- 
second Illinois Volunteers — who were at once formed into 
a brigade under Colonel Hugo Wangelin, for the defence 
of the city. At the second summons there were as- 
sembled by Brigadier-General E. C. Pike, with the as- 
sistance of Brigadier-Generals C. D. Wolff and Madison 
Miller, skeletons of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, 
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, 
Fifty-second, Eightieth, and Eighty-fifth regiments of 
the Missouri Enrolled Militia. The Seventh Kansas, a 
veteran regiment returning from service at Memphis, 
was held, Major-General A. J. Smith being in command, 
while Colonel E. C. Catherwood was placed in charge of a 
newly-recruited regiment known as Merrill's Horse, and 
of a part of the Thirteenth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry. 
Besides these forces, Senator B. Gratz Brown and Major 
—3— 



38 The Battle of Westport. 

Frederick T. Lederberger assembled between four and 
five thousand citizens, and all were set at work together 
at building fortifications, defences, out-works, rifle-pits, 
artillery-barbettes, and the like, for the purpose of re- 
sisting Price. The First Brigade of the defence-force — 
consisting of the First Regiment Missouri Enrolled Mil- 
itia, Colonel W. P. Fenn; the Second, Colonel E- Stafford; 
the Eightieth, Colonel L. J. Rankin; and the Eighty- 
fifth, Colonel W. A. J. Smith — numbering 1,750 men, 
under Brigadier-General Madison Miller, was hurried out 
to hold the bridges and fords of the Meramec River. 
Two other principal brigades were the Second, under 
Brigadier-General C. D. Wolff — consisting of the Third 
Missouri Enrolled Militia, Colonel Vahlkamp; the Sixth, 
Colonel T. Niederwieser ; and the Tenth, Colonel H. Hilde- 
brand, a total of 1,206 men — and the Third Brigade, 1,500 
men, under Brigadier-General Geo. F. Meyers, composed 
of the Eleventh Missouri Enrolled Militia, Lieutenant- 
Colonel E. Beekman; the Thirteenth, Colonel J. B. Marcy ; 
and the National Guard of St. Louis under Lieutenant 
W. B. Parker. To these two brigades there were added 
three "unattached" companies of militia cavalry under 
Major F. Walter. 

It has often been debated whether Price ever actually 
meant to attack St. Louis, but at least he gave its citizens 
a tremendous scare. A detachment of his scouts actually 
did come within a day's march of its suburbs, for on Sep- 
tember 30th Major-General A. J. Smith and a force con- 
sisting of both the last-mentioned brigades, the Seventh 
Kansas, and the cavalry under Major Walter, was sent 
out to the village of Kirkwood — now the residence-suburb 



The Battle oe Westport. 39 

of that name — to resist what they believed to be Price's 
van-guard, but no actual engagement occurred. Price 
himself, in his official reports to the Confederate War De- 
partment, says that there were two reasons why he did 
not move upon St. Louis. They were, first, that while 
he was at Ironton information was brought him that the 
Federal defence-force in and about the city exceeded his 
own by two to one ; and, second, that he deemed it of the 
utmost importance to reach Jefferson City as soon as pos- 
sible and seize the place and its abundant supplies. His 
scouting-parties in the direction of St. Louis were there- 
fore called in and his army turned westward. 

As soon as it was evident that Price's course was to be 
west along the Missouri River, Rosecrans ordered Major- 
General Smith and the Seventh Kansas veterans in pur- 
suit, at the same time sending word out into the western 
portion of the State that all Federal troops were imme- 
diately to assemble at Jefferson City to protect the capitol 
against capture by the invaders. The Federal brigades 
under Brigadier-Generals John McNeil at Rolla, John B. 
Sanborn at Springfield, Egbert B. Brown at Warrensburg, 
and Clinton B. Fisk (the nominal headquarters of the last- 
named being at St. Louis), responded and proceeded with 
all haste to fortify Jefferson City. Major-General Alfred 
S. Pleasanton reached St. Louis from the east on October 
8th and went on the same day to Jefferson City by 
steamer, to take charge of all the Federal forces and move 
against Price without delay. On that date it was, as 
mentioned in the previously-given itinerary of Price's 
progress through the State, that Fagan's division attacked 
the Federal out-works about the capital city, but was 



4o The; Battle; of Wsstport. 

withdrawn immediately and the army passed around 
Jefferson City to the south and turned westward toward 
the remaining goals of Kansas City, Fort Leavenworth, 
and eastern Kansas. 

This affair at Jefferson City, brief as it was — indeed, 
hardly more than a temporary halt in the movements of 
the invading force — yet deserves more than passing men- 
tion, in that the attack of Fagan's division, its immediate 
withdrawal, and the passing onward of Price's force, com- 
bine to mark the failure of the great invasion to accom- 
plish the second of the original objects of its campaign. 
An attack upon the city of St. Louis, and even its possible 
seizure, was the first in order of the objects which it was 
hoped by the authorities and strategists of the Confed- 
eracy, and even by Price's own officers and men, that the 
invasion would accomplish. Such attack was, as we have 
seen, not even begun. The seizure of Jefferson City, the 
capital of the State, with its seat of the State government 
and the contents of the State treasury, was the second such 
object, and if second in order yet probably first in rank. 
The Confederate element in Missouri and their friends in 
the other Southern States never ceased to claim that while 
the Federal element might be in nominal control, yet the 
State and its government was Confederate at heart. 
Claiborne F. Jackson, the Governor of the State (elected 
1861), though having fled from the capital when Captain 
Lyon seized the city, yet continued to claim his office in 
spite of having been succeeded in actual power by the 
"provisional" appointee of the United States Govern- 
ment, Hamilton R. Gamble. Accordingly, on Jackson's 
death late in 1862, Thomas C. Reynolds, who had him- 



The; Battle of Westport. 41 

self been Governor of Missouri from 1 840 to 1 844 and who 
was Lieutenant-Governor under the Jackson administra- 
tion, claimed that the rightful title and authority of the 
Governorship of Missouri descended to him, and from his 
retirement to South Carolina came at once to Richmond, 
Virginia, where, with the Missouri Senators of the Con- 
federacy, he conducted what might be called the Southern 
claim to the State of Missouri. This claim it was hoped 
that Price's invasion would convert into fact, and on the 
start of the campaign Reynolds joined Price and con- 
tinued with him, the Confederate hope and plan being that 
Price would seize Jefferson City and proclaim Reynolds 
as the rightful Governor of the State. This plan was 
frustrated, and this hope crushed, by Price's withdrawal 
of his forces from that attack upon the Federal defences 
of Jefferson City which, as we have seen, Pagan's division 
of his army had begun. Of Price's withdrawal and 
failure to seize the capital, Reynolds wrote in an open 
letter "to the public," dated at Marshall, Texas, De- 
cember 17th, 1864: 

"The confused operations before it (Jefferson City) 
may be judged by the facts that our ammunition train 
came near being led into the Federal lines, and when the 
army encamped at night neither of the two officers next 
in rank to General Price, Fagan and Marmaduke, was in- 
formed of or could learn the location of any division ex- 
cept his own, or of General Price's headquarters. The 
city could have been taken the day he neared it; it was 
then defended mainly by raw militia, most of whom our 
friends said were anxious to surrender or even to join us. 
The State House, with its lofty dome, lay that day in full 



42 The Battle of Westport. 

view of a gallant army confident of victory ; next morning 
. General Price suddenly ordered a retreat, on 
the road to Springfield." 

Events now began to move rapidly, for on reaching 
the capital next day Pleasanton took command of the 
Federal forces there and at once ordered Sanborn and his 
brigade to pursue Price with all speed. Late the same 
day (October 9th) the remainder of the defence-force — 
now known as the Cavalry Division, Department of the 
Missouri — set off to the westward also, all under the com- 
mand of Brigadier-General John B. Sanborn. Pleasanton 
himself remained at Jefferson City to ascertain what line 
of march and action the campaign of pursuit would take, 
and to provide for additional troops, reinforcements, etc., 
before he himself should join his army. (For the troops 
composing these commands, see the Appendix.) 

By this time the absence of discipline and the conse- 
quent state of disorder in Price's never very orderly army 
was, as a prominent Southerner and eye-witness says, 
"something terrific." The words are quoted from the 
above-mentioned open letter of Ex-Governor Reynolds 
himself, who has left us in that public and published doc- 
ument a startling picture of the march and its scenes. 
In his description he says : 

"Nothing contributed more to throw everything into 
confusion and harrass and fatigue his [Price's] troops than 
his singular order of march, sometimes called the tail- 
foremost or topsy-turvy system of moving an army. On 
the day's march, the division which had marched and 
camped in the rear the day before passed to the front, 
the troops halting till it had done so. In this Virginia 
reel of regiments, brigades and divisions, bewildered 



The; Battle of Westport. 43 

stragglers and new recruits got completely lost, until at 
last, a common sense cutting the Gordian knot of military 
blundering, they ceased attempting to find their com- 
panies and adopted the practice of bivouacing themselves 
in what was well known as the 'stragglers' camp.' The 
origin of this system of marching is obscure, but a gen- 
tleman who witnessed its effects in the Missouri State 
troops under General Price in 1861 hazarded the plausible 
conjecture, based on the similarity of operation and re- 
sults, that it is merely an enlarged application of the 
mode in which that renowned warrior, Baron Mun- 
chausen, killed the lion by thrusting his arm down the 
animal's throat, and turning him wrong side out by 
pulling his tail through his mouth. 

"Under such management of an army, of course out- 
rages and crimes could not be repressed. I cheerfully 
testify to the strenuous efforts of the commanders of di- 
visions and brigades, and the- officers generally, to pre- 
serve order. Nor should any one judge harshly of private 
soldiers yielding to the combined temptations of a rich 
conntry and an almost total withdrawal of restraint. 
Even then the real fighting-men did little injury, sneaks 
and dead-heads being the principal plunderers. It would 
take a volume to describe the acts of outrage; neither 
station nor sex was any protection; Southern men and 
women were as little spared as Unionists; the elegant 
mansion of General Robert E. Lee's accomplished niece 
and the cabin of the negro were alike ransacked; John 
Deane, the first civilian ever made a prisoner by Mr. 
Lincoln's Government, had his watch and his money 
robbed from his person in the open street of Potosi, in 
broad day, as unceremoniously as a German merchant at 
Fredericktown was forced, a pistol at his ear, to sur- 
render his concealed greenbacks. As the citizens of Ar- 
kansas and northern Texas have seen in the goods un- 
blushingly offered them for sale, the clothes of the poor 
man's infant were as attractive spoil as the merchant's 



44 The; Battle of Westport. 

silk or calico or the curtain taken from the rich man's 
parlor; ribbons and trumpery gewgaws were stolen from 
milliners and jeweled rings were forced from the fingers 
of delicate maidens whose very brothers were fighting in 

Cockrell's Confederate Missouri brigade 

"The natural result ensued, and the disorders con- 
tinued. They may be judged of by the fact that at Boon- 
ville, the hotel occupied as General Price's own head- 
quarters, was the scene of drunken revelry by night; 
that guerillas rode unchecked, in open day, before it, with 
human scalps hanging to their bridles, and tauntingly 
shaking bundles of plundered greenbacks at our needy 
soldiers; and in an open letter to him [Price], which he 
left unanswered and undenied, I asserted that while 'the 
wholesale pillage in the vicinity of the army had made it 
impossible to obtain anything by purchase, stragglers and 
camp-followers were enriching themselves by plundering 
the defenceless families of our own soldiers in Confederate 
service.' On still darker deeds I shudderingly keep 
silent." 

On the nth, while near Boonville, in Cooper County, 
Price received W. L. Quantrill and Captain "Bill" Ander- 
son, both well known then and since as leaders among the 
guerillas who had long harried the unfortunate State of 
Missouri (to say nothing of Kansas), and commissioned 
them to set out on side-raids, the former to cut the Han- 
nibal and Saint Joseph Railroad, the latter to destroy the 
North Missouri Railroad, both moves designed to prevent 
the importation of more Federal troops to act against his 
army. Anderson was killed fifteen days later, near 
Albany in the southwest corner of Ray County, by 
Lieutenant-Colonel S. P. Cox of the Thirty-third Missouri 
Enrolled Militia and Major John Grimes of the Fifty-first, 
and his arms and equipment were ordered distributed to 



The; Battle; of Westport. 45 

these officers and their men as "honorable trophies." 
The commission mentioned as having been given him by 
Price was found on his body. Quantrill practically dis- 
appeared from the State after receiving the instructions 
alluded to, and was next heard from in Kentucky. 

On the 1 8th there reached Price a spy whom he had 
sent some time before to report on conditions, prepara- 
tions, etc., in St. Louis, and who brought the surprising 
message that Price was being pursued by 24,000 men from 
that city and 15,000 from Jefferson City! In view of the 
actual numbers engaged in Price's pursuit, there is room 
for considerable doubt as to whether this "spy" had ever 
even attempted to carry out his dangerous mission, but 
it was probably from this source that there originated the 
grossly-exaggerated impressions current among Price's 
officers as to the forces opposed to them. 

Long before this date, however, Federal forces were 
preparing for Price's coming, in his front, as well as pur- 
suing in his rear. On the 1 7th day of September, Ma jor- 
General S. R. Curtis, commanding the Department of 
Kansas and the Indian Territory, with headquarters at 
Fort Leavenworth, returned to his post from the neigh- 
borhood of Fort Kearn:/, where he had been busy com- 
pelling the hostile Bruies, Sioux and Cheyennes to desist 
from an attack, for which they had seized the oppor- 
tunity of the Government's absorption in the war in the 
East, on their old enemies, the Pawnees. With him re- 
turned Major R. H. Hunt, who had been his only staff - 
officer on this expedition. He found on his desk dis- 
patches notifying him that Price was even then starting 
from Arkansas on another grand invasion of Missouri. 



46 The Battle: of Westport. 

That same day Curtis telegraphed the substance of his 
information to Rosecrans at St. Louis and wired to 
Governor Thomas Carney of Kansas, at Topeka, that 
he might have to "ask the militia of southern Kansas 
to aid in checking rebel approaches." Within the 
next few days he managed to set much more of the 
machinery of military resistance in motion, ordering 
the towns of Lawrence, Paola, Olathe, and Fort Scott 
to be fortified against possible attack; summoning 
Major-General J. G. Blunt in from an expedition against 
the Indians west of Fort Lamed ; mounting heavy siege- 
guns at the above-named Kansas towns and at Fort 
Leavenworth; notifying the Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer 
Cavalry at Mound City, the Sixteenth and Eleventh reg- 
iments and McLain's Independent Battery Colorado 
Volunteers at Paola, that they must be prepared to move 
at any day; sending the Second Colorado Cavalry from 
Fort Leavenworth to Kansas City, then on a scout to 
Pleasant Hill, and finally stationing them at Hickman's 
Mills; and finally summoning Captain J. H. Dodge's 
Ninth Wisconsin Battery in from Fort Riley. 

Rosecrans kept Curtis posted as to his own measures 
against Price in the neighborhood of St. Louis, while 
from Jefferson City Curtis received reports of Price's ad- 
vance toward that place. On the 8th inst. he urged Gov- 
ernor Carney to call out the entire militia of Kansas, and 
on the 9th the Governor published his correspondence 
with Curtis and issued the following call : 

"Kansans, rally! You will do so, as you have always 
done so promptly when your soil has been invaded. The 
call this time will come to you louder and stronger because 



The; Battle of Westport. 47 

you know that the foe will seek to glut his vengeance upon 
you. Meet him, then, at the threshold, and strike boldly; 
strike as one man against him. Let all business be sus- 
pended. The work to be done now is to protect the State 
against marauder and murderer. Till this is accom- 
plished we must lead a soldier's life and do a soldier's 
duty. Men of Kansas, rally! One blow, one earnest 
united blow will foil the invader and save you. Who will 
falter? Who is not ready to meet the peril? Who will 
not defend his home and the State? To arms, then ! To 
arms and the tented field until the rebel foe shall be 
baffled and beaten back! "Thomas Carney, 

"Governor." 

This call, in spite of its almost ludicrously melo- 
dramatic phraseology, was all very well as far as it went, 
but an experienced soldier like Curtis knew that the time 
was short, and that no days might be wasted in folly, 
oratory, and indecision. Accordingly, on the 10th he 
took matters in his own hands, proclaimed martial law 
throughout the State of Kansas, ordered all business to 
cease, and summoned every able-bodied man between the 
ages of eighteen and sixty into the ranks, whites and 
blacks alike. This vigorous proceeding had the effect of 
arousing the population to the emergency of the situation, 
all business was suspended as ordered, and the organization 
of military forces took precedence over all else. Major- 
General Deitzler, in command of the State Militia, came to 
the front in this critical situation in a spirit far more ad- 
mirable and effective than that shown by many of his 
political colleagues, and issued orders for the men of each 
county to concentrate at the county-seat or other des- 
ignated town, there to be formed into regiments, etc., 
commanding each man to bring with him such arms as 



48 The Battle of Westport. 

he might have at hand, with "a full supply of ammuni- 
tion" and "two blankets, a tin cup, knife, fork, haver- 
sack, coffee-pot and frying-pan." 

Even at this date Kansas contained its full quota of 
cranks and many of these mounted the stump or took up 
the pen, assuring the people that the State militia could 
not be taken outside the boundaries of the State by any 
authority for any purpose, and claiming that Curtis' only 
object in raising the troops was to have them away from 
their residences at the time of the approaching November 
elections. These allegations were actually taken with 
sufficient seriousness to lead Governor Carney and Major- 
General Deitzler to make a trip to Fort Leavenworth to 
ask General Curtis as to their truth. That vigorous old 
soldier promptly and emphatically informed them that 
his authority was sufficient to take State militia any- 
where at any time ; though he added that he did not think 
it likely that any one would be in service more than a few 
weeks, and that every man should be mustered out im- 
immediately the danger was past. This satisfied the 
State officials and silenced the demagogues — the latter 
for a time only, as we shall see. 

Between the ioth and 14th of October, General Curtis 
went to Kansas City — which point Price had now pub- 
licly announced as his first goal, with Fort Leavenworth 
as his second — and there reconnoitered in person the 
country that with the experienced soldier's instinct and 
observation he saw must be the field of the approaching 
battle. He decided to make a first stand against Price 
at the Big Blue River, a second before Kansas City, and a 
third, if necessary, at Wyandotte, Kansas — now Kansas 



The Battle of Westport. 49 

City, Kansas. He directed his chief engineer, Lieutenant 
George T. Robinson, to provide strong earthworks at 
these points, and also around Kansas City on the south 
and east, and to connect Kansas City and Wyandotte 
with a floating bridge. In all these works the then City 
Engineer of Kansas City, Mr. William Miller, aided, and 
was later given special praise by Curtis in his reports. 
The limits of the Kansas City of that day did not extend 
beyond the present Holmes Street on the east, Eighth and 
Locust on the southeast, and Eleventh and Centra 
Streets on the south. The fortifications provided for use 
in case Curtis' forces in the coming battle should be 
driven back upon Kansas City, lay accordingly just out- 
side of each of these points, beginning at Seventh and 
Charlotte Streets, passing Ninth and Locust Streets (at 
exactly the location of the Public Library to-day), and 
running thence to Fourteenth and Central and ending at 
Fourteenth and Madison. They were strongly built of 
their kind, and consisted of a breastwork of earth with a 
sloping outer face and a trench within, and before them 
was dug a series of rifle-pits, these being the ordinary 
form of such fortifications at that day. They were so 
deeply dug and the thrown-up earth was so solidly packed 
that they were plainly visible and were the beloved play- 
ground of the boys of the city for more than ten years 
after the war. The plan for these works was made by 
Lieutenant Robinson and they were carried out under 
command of Colonel R. T. Van Horn, then a member of 
the State Legislature, editor of the "Journal of Com- 
merce" (predecessor of the "Kansas City Journal"), and 
in command of Van Horn's Battalion United States Re- 



50 The Battle oe Westport. 

serves, reporting to General Curtis and practically a 
member of his staff. In Curtis' report of this visit to 
Kansas City he states that he "found lawyers, ministers, 
doctors, merchants, all digging in the earthworks before 
Kansas City and at the Big Blue River." He sent out 
warnings to travellers and merchants, and notified steam- 
boat-owners and captains that if they expected their 
craft to ply on the Missouri east of Kansas City they had 
better bullet-proof their pilot-houses and engine-rooms, 
and wired to the army headquarters at St. Louis of his 
intended firm stand against Price's approach. By the 
ioth, Major-General J. G. Blunt had arrived at Olathe on 
his hurried return from his Indian campaign in western 
Kansas, and received orders from Curtis to take up his 
headquarters at Hickman's Mills with all of the Kansas 
troops that were at the time available. He accordingly 
gathered skeletons of what presently became the First, 
Second and Third brigades of Curtis' army, and went into 
camp at the designated point at n a. m. of the 14th, 
leaving orders that as the remainder of the Kansas troops 
came in they were to report to Major-General G. W. 
Deitzler at Shawneetown, just within the Kansas State 
line, and were there to be organized and forwarded as 
rapidly as possible. 

Two days later a mutiny broke out in this camp of 
Blunt's at Hickman's Mills, and on the part of men who 
should have learned far better by this time. Brigadier- 
General W. H. M. Fishback, in charge of the Kansas 
Militia in the camp and under General Blunt, together 
with Colonel J. S. Snoddy of the Sixth Regiment Kansas 
State Militia, decided not to recognize the authority of 



The; Battle; of Westport. 51 

Blunt or Curtis as having power to take State militia 
across the State line, and both refused to obey orders 
they had received, and ordered the entire militia to return 
into the territory of Kansas. This unsoldierly perform- 
ance, and one sufficient in itself to have defeated the plans 
for checking Price, was promptly nipped in the bud by 
Blunt's placing the two offenders in close arrest, and di- 
recting the Sixth regiment to elect another colonel im- 
mediately. This the militia very cheerfully did, naming 
a veteran, James Montgomery, nnder whose leadership 
they later did very good work in the field — -"gallant ser- 
vice," as Blunt himself later reported. It is probably 
due to Brigadier-General Fishback's memory to add that 
Curtis himself later ordered Fishback freed from this ar- 
rest, and even placed his name on the honor-roll of the 
troops after the campaign, while Blunt himself rather 
grimly puts in a plea for them in his report of the matter, 
saying that he could not "inflict upon them the summary 
punishment prescribed by the rules of war, viz., death," 
because he knew "that they were the instruments selected 

. by others to carry out their mischievous and dis- 
graceful designs." 

Among General Curtis' troubles at this time not the 
least was a strangely widespread impression that all this 
work, preparation and the like had been based upon 
mere rumors of Price's coming, such as had so often ob- 
tained a considerable degree of credence in former years. 
Indeed, on the 19th, the very day when General Blunt 
and the bulk of his command was engaged in a fierce little 
fight near Lexington with Price's van-guard, certain 
newspapers published in Kansas City and the little 



52 The; Battle of Westport. 

Kansas towns near by expressed the opinion that Price 
had long since left the State, if, indeed, he had ever ser- 
iously entered it. But when the news of this actual 
fight so near at hand was spread throughout the com- 
munity and the militia soldiery, General Curtis suddenly 
found himself the object of a sentiment of desperate de- 
pendence upon him and his efforts that was as marked as 
had been the former atmosphere of unbelief and suspicion. 
In the meantime, from the ioth to the 20th of the 
month, Price had been moving rapidly from the direction 
of Jefferson City toward Kansas City. On the 15th, a 
detachment of 1,200 men of Shelby's division — consisting 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Alonzo W. Slayback's Missouri 
Cavalry Battalion, Elliott's Missouri Cavalry regiment 
under Colonel Benjamin Elliott, the Fifth Missouii Cav- 
alry under Colonel F. B. Gordon, and Collins' Missouri 
Battery under Captain Richard A. Collins — made, under 
the leadership of Brigadier-General M. Jeff Thompson, 
who commonly commanded Shelby's own brigade (as 
distinguished from the rest of Shelby's division), a side- 
raid upon the town of Sedalia. Starting before day- 
break the horsemen took the little town completely by 
surprise, Elliott's cavalry leading the charge in over the 
prairie upon the two earthen redoubts and the line of 
rifle-pits. The actual fighting lasted but a few moments 
and the affair was hardly accompanied by great credit to 
either side, for the defenders fled pell-mell as soon as the 
Confederate howitzers of Captain Collins' battery opened 
fire, and even Jeff Thompson, in his reports to the Con- 
federate authorities, admits that "there was considerable 
plundering." The raiders took everything they could 



The Battle; of Westport. 53 

carry from the town, destroyed everything that bore the 
mark of the United States Government, and eye-wit- 
nesses of that day tell of seeing them riding through the 
streets, their feet bare in their stirrups, carrying their 
boots full of whiskey, for lack of other facilities for its 
transportation . 

Pleasanton's army was hard on Price's rear, Brig.-Gen. 
Sanborn being in charge until the 19th, when Pleasanton 
himself came on from his headquarters at Jefferson City 
and took command of the pursuit in person. There was 
constant skirmishing all the way, whenever any of Price's 
rear fell back far enough or when Pleasanton's van-guard 
pushed ahead sufficiently to bring either in touch with the 
other. Price's men carried away everything from the 
farms and villages and destroyed whatever could not be 
loaded into their wagons, largely with a view to retarding 
their pursuers by wiping out both supplies and fodder. 
Their numbers were considerably swelled by what they 
called "recruits," but whom the Federal sympathizers 
regarded as Confederate supporters who had small liking 
for the prospect of close interviews with Pleasanton's 
men. Price practically forced into his ranks all the male 
citizens of military age encountered in his march, and 
notices still exist which were posted in Lexington on his 
arrival there, ordering all such to "report for duty" to 
officers appointed for the purpose of assigning them. 
This policy resulted in there being accumulated among his 
force a large number of unarmed men and boys — Price 
himself says "several thousand" — and all such were at- 
tached to the wagon-train and made to assist the enor- 
mous numbers of wagons and horses that had been ac- 
—4— 



54 The; Battle of Wsstport. 

cumulated by the Confederates. Not a few of Price's 
officers were much opposed to this policy, and Brigadier- 
General W. L. Cabell has left a graphic description of how 
this^unarmedjmob rushed wildly to whatever part of the 
army was least engaged, when any firing occurred. 



CHAPTER V. 



ENGAGEMENTS AT THE LITTLE BLUE, INDEPENDENCE, 
AND THE BIG BLUE. 

ABOUT the 1 7th of the month Major-General Blunt, 
at Curtis' command, set out from Hickman's Mills 
with practically all of the Kansans there gathered 
under him. Some 2,000 of the First and Second 
brigades into which Curtis' forces had now been formed 
(see Appendix) composed his force, including their two 
batteries of four twelve-pounder mountain howitzers 
each. With these men, all mounted, he made an ex- 
tended scout through the towns of Pleasant Hill, Holden, 
and Lexington. Three miles south of the last place he 
and his men made on the 19th the determined little fight 
of which we have heard while noting Price's advance, 
and retreated only when they had forced Price to halt 
and bring up his heavy Parrott rifled guns and put them 
into action. On this being done, Blunt and his force re- 
treated to the banks of the Little Blue River, a small 
stream eight miles east of the town of Independence. 
The sharpness of this skirmish may be judged from Gen- 
eral Shelby's comment thereon to his brother-officers. 
Reporting that he had been resisted by troops under 
Blunt, some of the others doubted that Blunt was the 
man in command. Shelby, who had met Blunt before, 
answered simply: "Well, gentlemen, all I have to say is 
that it was either Blunt or the devil!" 

55 



56 The Battle of Westport. 

By the next day, the 20th, General Curtis had placed 
practically all his army so as to resist Price to the best 
advantage. A few scattering volnnteers were at Kansas 
City with the Kansas City Home Guards under Colonel 
Kersey Coates. A few others were on guard at West- 
port and other minor points. His main line of defence 
was, of course, the elaborate and complete earthworks, 
which have been mentioned as constructed along the 
western bank of the Big Blue River from its junction 
with the Missouri River south to the Hickman's Mills 
crossing. Till the moment came for the use of this line, 
however, he meant to annoy the enemy as much as pos- 
sible by fighting him all the way from where Blunt was 
now in touch with his van-guard. On the 20th, Curtis 
ordered the newly-made Fourth Brigade (created at 
Blunt's request from the late-arriving Kansans and other 
forces that till then had been stationed elsewhere) under 
Colonel James H. Ford, and the Independent Battery of 
Colorado Volunteers under Captain W. D. McLain, to join 
Blunt's forces at the Little Blue and there to "feel" the 
enemy and compel him to develop an attack. It was not 
intended — it was in fact forbidden by Curtis— to bring on 
a battle at this point, and all these forces were instructed 
to retreat to the Big Blue as soon as hard-pressed by 
Price's columns. 

The morning of the 21st brought General Curtis the 
news that these forces were already engaged, and he at 
once rode to the scene himself and directed first the re- 
sistance and then the retreat. The Confederate attack 
at the Little Blue was made by Major-General Marma- 
duke's division, the Tenth Missouri Cavalry under Colonel 



The Battle of Westport. 57 

Robert T. Lawther leading, reinforced by one hundred 
and fifty of the Third Missouri Cavalry under Colonel 
Colton Greene and the Seventh Missouri Cavalry under 
Colonel S. G. Kitchen. General Marmaduke himself had 
two horses shot under him in the fight here. The Fed- 
eral brigades were dismounted and drawn up on the sum- 
mit of the wooded slope rising to the west of the little 
river, Moonlight's brigade and four howitzers in the 
center, Jennison's on the right (the Third Wisconsin Cav- 
alry forming his right and the Fifteenth Kansas Cavalry 
his left), and Ford's on the left — Ford placing McLain's 
Colorado battery in the center of his line, the Sixteenth 
Kansas to the left of it, and the Second Colorado at the 
right. While in line and waiting for the Confederate at- 
tack, the men of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry sang 

"Rally 'round the flag, boys." 

The bridge across the stream in front of this line of 
battle had been buined, as the last detail of all, by Major 
Martin Anderson and two companies of the Eleventh 
Kansas Cavalry, who the night before had hauled a huge 
wagon-load of hay upon the bridge and fired it as soon as 
the Confederates came in sight. General Marmaduke re- 
ports that his Engineer Company under Captain J. T. 
Hogane rebuilt or improvised another bridge, but the 
bulk of his command did not wait for this, and made their 
way to the western side of the little stream and opened 
fire on the waiting Federal line. Their first attack, in 
the order mentioned, was repulsed, but as their reinforce- 
ments came up they regained and held their ground. 
Among other casualties received on the Federal side in 



58 The Battle of Westport. 

this sharply-fought engagement, Major J. H. Smith, a 
much-beloved officer of the Second Colorado Cavalry, 
was shot through the heart and instantly killed while on 
his horse, directing the dismounting of his men for volley- 
firing against the Confederate approach. A Captain G. 
L. Grove, in command of Company G of the Eleventh 
Kansas Cavalry, only 23 years of age, but yet widely and 
honorably known throughout Kansas, so over-exerted 
himself that he died at Westport a few days later. Sen- 
ator "Jim" Lane of Kansas also took part in this fight, 
nominally on Curtis' staff, but actually fighting in the 
ranks with a Sharps' carbine, having been supplied with 
his equipments by Major Hunt. The fearlessness with 
which General Curtis exposed himself in the face of the 
enemy, while directing the action and endeavoring to 
hold his not over-steady militiamen to their work, may be 
inferred from the fact that of the forty mounted men of 
his personal escort fifteen had their horses shot under 
them. During the resistance to Marmaduke's attack 
here, Major Hunt opened with the two howitzers attached 
to Curtis' escort, from the shelter of a little group of 
trees, houses, and a blacksmith's shop. The Confederates 
promptly turned both artillery and musketry on the spot 
and two of the battery horses fell at their first volley. 
The sergeant in charge, a notorious bully of Fort Leaven- 
worth, promptly took to his heels, when Major Hunt, 
Major Ross of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry (later Senator 
Ross of Kansas), and an orderly named Bloomer, united 
in cutting the harness from the dead horses and saving 
the gun, Major Hunt being hit in the head by a piece of 
n exploding Confederate shell while thus engaged. An 




Major R. H. Hunt. 
Chief of Ordnance and Artillery on the staff of General Curtis. 



The Battle oe Westport. 6i 

interesting feature among the events of the fight was the 
arrival on the field of battle of a little company of would- 
be Federal volunteers from the town of Warrensburg, 
under the lead of a Captain Geo. S. Grover, who came of 
their own accord to take part in the fighting and to whom 
General Curtis promptly assigned a position which would 
give them what they wanted, and he later reported that 
they did excellent service. The losses on the Confed- 
erate side in this action at the Little Blue are unknown, 
but Major-General Blunt estimated those on the Federal 
side at two hundred killed, wounded, and missing. 

Toward the close of the afternoon Curtis ordered all 
his hard-pressed forces to abandon the field and retire to 
their assigned positions in the earthworks and defences 
along the west bank of the Big Blue River, between Inde- 
pendence and Kansas City (see maps). As his men were 
retreating through the town of Independence to this new 
position a woman fired a shot from a window of a dwel- 
ling at the passing troopers of the Second Colorado Cav- 
alry and wounded one of the lieutenants of that regiment. 

While going back with his force, Curtis received, in 
the town of Independence, a telegram informing him of 
Sheridan's decisive defeat of Early in the Shenandoah 
Valley, and he sent out messengers to carry the news of 
this victory to all the troops and to residents in the near-by 
country. By the same couriers he also made public his 
intention of checking Price the next day at the Big Blue, 
and from the saddle he personally announced these mes- 
sages, etc., in the town-square of Independence. He sent 
a telegram to Rosecrans at St. Louis, urging him in turn 
to make Pleasanton push Price to the utmost, hoping 



62 The Battle o* Wkstport. 

thus to crush the invaders between front and rear attacks. 
Finally he reassured himself that every foot of the Big 
Blue was closely guarded, a front of between ten and 
fifteen miles. Such was the situation on the night of the 
2 ist hist, as detailed in his own reports of that evening, 
his own force (which he estimated at 15,000 men) en- 
trenched along the west hank of the Big Blue, facing east- 
ward toward Independence, Price's army covering the 
country from near the Big Blue eastward nearly to (he 
Little Blue, and Pleasanton lying on Price's rear. 

On the next day occurred the action known as the 
Battle of Hi- Big Blue River. 

The dawn of the 22(1 found General Curtis at his head- 
quarters in the field, on the line of the trenches along the 
Big Blue and at almost exactly the point where Fifteenth 
Street (extended) now crosses the stream. The entrench- 
ments north of that point — Curtis' left wing — were under 
the general command of Major General G. W. Deitzler of 
the Kansas Militia, and those south of this point were gen 
erally under Major C.eneral Blunt. Deitzler had not par- 
ticipated in the fight at the Little Blue the day before, 
but had spent the time in preparing his portion of the 
trenches for occupation by such militia as he already had 
with him and by those who should return from the en- 
gagement at the Little Blue. Governor Thomas Carney 
himself was also present here, and personally "entered with 
zeal and energy upon the work" at the same point, as 
Curtis later wrote. Colonel C. W. Blair, commanding the 
Third Brigade, also executed much of the preparations 
here, felling trees, obstructing fordable places in the stream, 
placing the guns of Dodge's Ninth Wisconsin Battery in 



f/,,t> No. I- 



•- .p.-. H KOI 22» 






** I OOQQ 

Hi ■ ■ 




MM , oNe-TMipjo i*cm to out Mitt 



..: .• Geo T Robinson loao i ' ■ eral s. R.Cur- 

,- partmenf • ' IPestport. 

a, a Old independence Road. J; Pifteen goftbc Big Bloc ■■ -■ ' ' -Old Hoc 

of the Santa Pe Trail. D, D Old Westport Roa grounds. P — Porest HlU Cemetery, 

»pa Path U P> ' • "•' division, J Price's army, Marmaduke'h 'ii vision. I — 

army, Jennison's brigade, i. Curtis' army. Moonlight's 

brlgads air*sbrigad« I i •■■>• | 4< Curtis' army, troops 

nadei Deitzlet I Pleasanton's army, Brown's (Phillips'; brigade. Q Pleasanton's army, McNeil's 
brigade R Pleasanton's army Banbori i h a 'on * army, wintlown brigade. T, 'f — 

PortinCStionS before Kansas City. D Wagon-train with i'rice's army. 



The Battel of Westport. 65 

position, etc. The mouth of the Blue was guarded by 250 
men of the Fourth Kansas, next to whom on the south 
came the Second Kansas Colored State Militia under 
Captains R. J. Hinton and J. L. Rafety. Next in order 
was the Sixth Regiment, with their newly-elected Colo- 
nel, James Montgomery. The Ninth Wisconsin Battery 
under Captain Dodge and the Independent Colorado Bat- 
tery with their fine rifled field-pieces had position in 
what was thus the center of the line of resistance. To 
their right — southward, again — lay the Fifth Kansas and 
Lieutenant-Colonel G. P. Eves' Twenty-fourth Kansas 
State Militia, better known by the name of the Bourbon 
County Militia Battalion. Beyond these were the Tenth 
Kansas and the right section of the Second Kansas Bat- 
tery under Lieutenant D. C. Knowles, and at Byrom's 
Ford (see map) was the Fourth Kansas under Colonel W. 
D. McCain. The southern end of the line was formed 
chiefly by Colonel C. R. Jennison's First Brigade and 
Moonlight's Second Brigade, the extreme southern point 
of the Hickman's Mills Crossing being held by Brigadier- 
General M. S. Grant with 100 militiamen of the Second 
and the Twenty-first Kansas and one brass howitzer under 
Captain J. T. Burnes of the Second. Such was the long 
line of battle which it was hoped would check Price and 
the 37,000 men whom rumor reported as accompanying 
him. 

Early in the morning the skirmishers moving ahead of 
Price's van drove in the outposts and pickets that were in 
front of Curtis' headquarters, compelling them to seek 
the protection of the trenches. At first Curtis took this 
to mean that the main attack would come directly against 



66 The Battle; of Westport. 

his position, but the fact that no further action followed 
made his experienced soldier's instinct suspect that the 
move was a feint to draw attention from his right, or 
southern, flank, and he immediately moved his head- 
quarters back to a point from which he could more easily 
communicate with his entire line, and at 9 o'clock sent to 
all the officers along his right wing this message : 

"Price making only feeble demonstrations in front of 
me. Look out for your position. Send scouts toward 
Independence. Send me reports every thirty minutes." 

Curtis' suspicion was exactly correct, for it was Price's 
intention simply to hold the attention of Curtis' left till 
he could break through or slip around the right flank. 
Price was too old a soldier to risk being caught in a trap 
on the bank of the Missouri, and he knew well that his 
only hope lay in keeping to the open country to the south. 
Yet so firmly fixed was his confidence in his ability to 
break through or escape the preparations made to check 
him that early in the morning of this very day he sent a 
taunting message into Kansas City, directed to the officers 
at Fort Leavenworth and assuring them that he would 
take supper in the Fort on the evening of the next day. 

Soon the right wing of Curtis' line began to learn the 
correctness of their commander's apprehension. The 
scouts sent out in accordance with his instructions began 
to return with reports that Price was moving on a line 
southwest from Independence. Presently the officers 
and men of the Kansas regiments along the right of the 
line could see the mounted skirmishers of the enemy ap- 
proaching through the trees of the rolling country op- 
posite them across the Blue. The howitzers of Jenni- 



The; Battle of Westport. 67 

son's, Moonlight's and Blair's brigades opened upon them, 
and the line of the Big Blue thundered steadily as the 
little field-guns sent their canister at the foe. The guns 
of Shelby's division, which formed Price's van here as 
usual, opened in reply, while just to the southward of 
their position the Confederate cavalry dismounted and 
crept toward the river, slipping from tree to tree and 
from cover to cover to reach the Federal trenches with 
their musketry and carbine-fire. Little by little they 
pressed forward in increasing numbers in the face of the 
Kansans' fire, working always toward the south in the 
hope of turning Curtis' flank and finding a chance to cross 
the river. The Federal loss was not great, for the men 
were largely protected by their earth- works, and the Con- 
federates, though necessarily suffering more for lack of 
such shelter, were yet so concealed among the trees that 
much of the fire directed at them was random and inef- 
fective. Morning passed, noon came, and the afternoon 
was under way and the firing continued steadily across 
the narrow, deep and muddy channel of the stream. 

On Price's side the conduct of his force during the 
morning was along two lines. The first was the steady 
forward movement of his fighting-force until the two 
leading divisions (Shelby's and Fagan's) were massed 
against the river. The second was his bringing up his 
immense wagon-train from the rear to the middle of his 
army, a move designed to keep it from capture by Pleas- 
anton's pursuing troops, who were now uncomfortably 
close behind. It is true that the fighting between these 
two Federal armies on the one side and the one Confed- 
erate on the other was less aggressive and well-organized 



68 The Battle of Westport. 

than among the better disciplined and more experienced 
armies of the eastern campaigns, but it is also true that 
few actions of the Civil War were more stubbornly fought 
in proportion to the numbers engaged than were these 
actions along the Big Blue River. More than one officer 
of experience has commented particularly on the per- 
sistent and tenacious nature of this assault by Price's 
mounted and dismounted cavalrymen against the nu- 
merically superior Federal force entrenched on the op- 
posite side of the stream whose natural situation made 
it difficult to cross without hindrance. All military au- 
thorities, of course, agree that an entrenched force has 
an almost infinite advantage over an exposed and as- 
saulting body, and when that advantage is increased by 
a steep-banked stream fordable in but few places, it is 
evident that the attacking force must possess great 
bravery and determination to even face such a superior 
position. Yet this is exactly what Price's irregular cav- 
alrymen did— -more than that, as we shall presently see, 
they succeeded in forcing a crossing in the very face of 
this resistance to their advance. Curtis had added to his 
position still another defence than those afforded by the 
stream and the trenches, for, as we have seen mentioned, 
on the day before, Colonel Blair's brigade had choked the 
deep channel of the stream at many points with felled 
trees, forming an abatis through which a way could only 
be forced by much delay and the use of axes. True, Price 
had small choice but to press his attack with vigor, for as 
the day wore on Pleasanton's pursuit grew nearer and 
nearer, until the Confederate army was hemmed in on 
the north by the impassable Missouri, on the west by the 



The; Battle of Westport. 69 

Federal line along the Big Blue, and on the east by Pleas- 
anton's vigorous advance. 

Shortly before noon the situation became yet more acute 
for the Confederates. Marmaduke's division formed their 
rear-guard, and his men were practically backing through 
their Independence, their backs toward the army whose 
rear they were protecting, their faces and their firing-line 
toward Pleasanton's aggressive pursuit. Some of them 
remained in the saddle and galloped hither and thither 
through the streets of Independence to check now this 
now that detachment of their pursuers; others dis- 
mounted, sending their horses on ahead (westward), and, 
seizing such shelter as the streets, houses, gardens and 
lanes of the town offered, gave way as slowly as possible, 
maintaining a vigorous fire in the face of their pursuers. 
Pleasanton determined to break down this resistance 
to his advance. About the middle of the afternoon he 
sent forward orders to Brigadier-Generals Sanborn and 
McNeil, who were conducting the advance, directing them 
to charge and break the lines of Confederates who were 
so successfully holding them in check. This meant a 
charge directly into and through the town of Independ- 
ence and in the face of mounted and dismounted cavalry- 
fire and against artillery that was well sheltered among 
the buildings and structures of the town. McNeil elected 
to make his charge with his brigade in the saddle and 
using their sabers, Sanborn to make his with his men dis- 
mounted and using their carbines. The two charges were 
made simultaneously, at almost exactly 3 o'clock, starting 
from points just outside the eastern limits of the town, 
Sanborn's brigade attacking on the Federal right (the 



70 The; Battle of Westport. 

north) and McNeil's on the left (the south). The van of 
McNeil's charge was formed by the Thirteenth Missouri 
Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, supported by another already 
famous veteran regiment, the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, 
at this time under Major F. M. Malone. This last was 
undoubtedly one of the most remarkable bodies of troops 
enlisted during the entire war, composed as it was of six 
companies enlisted in Kansas, three brought from Illinois, 
and one from Ohio. Alike among friends and foes, this 
regiment had a reputation as fighters, and the temper of 
some of its men may be inferred from the fact that the 
Ohio company was under the leadership of John Brown, 
Jr., who was accustomed at each nightfall to gather his 
men around him and make them a fierce harangue, 
ending with the question: "Do you solemnly swear to 
avenge the death of John Brown?" to which the entire 
company would shout in answer, "We do!" D. R. An- 
thony was long the colonel of the regiment, and the name 
of W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," was on its roll, his first 
fame as a scout having been won while serving with this 
regiment. The men were equipped with Colt's revolving 
rifles and Spencer repeating carbines, the most notable 
and effective weapons in use in the war. This was the 
regiment that bore throughout its career the nickname of 
"Jayhawkers," a title to which to-day the whole State 
lays claim. 

Without firing a shot McNeil's men charged into the 
town and broke through streets, yards and gardens in 
pursuit of the scattering Confederates, charging, forming 
and charging again upon squads of Marmaduke's men as 
they fled to the westward, and capturing two of their 



Thp; Battle of Westport. 71 

guns. Sanborn's dismounted brigade marched to their 
charge at the double-quick, the Second Arkansas Cavalry, 
Colonel John K. Phelps commanding, being in the lead in 
the charge. Halting to fire one great volley ahead of 
them as they reached the easternmost houses of the set- 
tlement, they hurried forward at will, their lines neces- 
sarily broken by the obstructions of streets and buildings, 
loading and firing as fast as their carbines would permit, 
keeping steady sheets of lead whizzing through the un- 
fortunate village and striving to shoot down any Con- 
federate whom they could discern through the great 
clouds of smoke that drifted and rose through the streets 
and among the trees of private lawns. And if feminine 
sentiment had been displayed in bitter hostility to the 
Federal cause in the town the evening before, it was man- 
ifested by other women on the opposite side at this time, 
for during the entire battle in the very streets of Inde- 
pendence two ladies stood on the upper floor of a two- 
story porch or "gallery," as it is called in the South, of a 
house one block south of the town square, and waved 
their handkerchiefs by way of encouragement to the 
Federal troops, with whom their sympathies obviously 
lay. 

The Confederate irregular cavalry regiments resisted 
there fierce charges through the very center of the town 
with the utmost bravery — indeed, surprisingly, in view 
of the double attack and the greater number of the Fed- 
erals — and General Marmaduke and General Cabell (who, 
though regularly attached to Fagan's division, was as- 
sisting Marmaduke in this rear-guard action) kept so near 
the Federal charging-line that when at last they had to 
—5— 



72 Tiif; Battle; of Westport. 

put spurs to their horses to escape capture, General Cabell 
was compelled to leap his horse over a piece of ordnance 
that lay in his way, and chanced to drop his sword and had 
no time to recover it, and it was secured by one of McNeil's 
cavalrymen. A member of Cabell's personal staff, accom- 
panying him, was less fortunate, being headed off by a 
squad of McNeil's troopers and captured. A two-gun 
battery of Confederate artillery was worked against San- 
born's dismounted and charging lines until they were so 
near that when at last the battery-captain gave the order 
to limber up and retreat at full speed, a blazing volley 
from the Federals killed or disabled every horse in the gun- 
teams, compelling the artillerymen to flee on foot and 
abandon the guns to the enemy. These guns were later 
found to be the Parrott rifles originally captured from Fed- 
eral forces at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, by General "Dick" 
Taylor. These actions all occurred in the very midst of 
the town of Independence, beginning at the eastern edge, 
continuing westward and ending on the western limits of 
the settlement, where the Federals were halted, the re- 
treating Confederates forming Price's rear-guard finally 
being seen riding or running off at full speed. 

It is difficult to estimate the losses on either side in this 
fight through the town; for the reason that the surgeons 
on either side were kept so on the move that they con- 
tented themselves with only a roughly-summarized list 
of the wounded whom they attended. Yet a study of the 
reports of the officers commanding during the action gives 
considerable reason to believe that about 25 Federals 
killed and 75 wounded must be close to the correct figures, 
while several eye-witnesses counted the Confederate dead 



The Battle oe Westport. 73 

as they lay in the streets and agree that 40 bodies were 
thus found, the number of the wounded being unknown. 
Where all the bullets, shot and shell went to is a puzzle, 
for there is no room for doubt that the firing in every form 
was incessant. McNeil's brigade, being mounted, suf- 
fered the severest loss on the Federal side, but also cap- 
tured the most prisoners; while Sanborn's men, on foot, 
suffered less, but were able to capture but few of their 
opponents. 

Captain George Todd, a famous young Confederate 
whose home was in Jackson County, of which Independ- 
ence is the county-seat, and who had been serving in 
Cabell's brigade, was killed on the outskirts of Inde- 
pendence in this fight in Cabell's last charge. Known to 
the Federal sympathizers as "a notorious guerilla," he 
was held in most opposite esteem by friends of the Con- 
federacy, and had been called by them "a flower of 
Southern manhood." He had been Quantrill's second in 
command in the raids on Lawrence and Baxter Springs. 
Closely pressed by Federal cavalrymen, he put spurs to 
his horse and was dashing away at full speed, his bridle 
in his teeth, firing backward over each shoulder with a 
revolver in each hand, when a Federal bullet pierced his 
throat. 

With this fierce fighting thus driving his rear in upon 
him, Price had no choice save to make the most desperate 
effort to break through or get around Curtis' forces in the 
trenches along the Blue, and in this difficult task his men 
finally succeeded. Diverting the head of his attack to 
the extreme right (south) of the Kansas line, he endeav- 
ored to beat back from the trenches the defenders of that 



74 The; Battle of Westport. 

point in Curtis' resistance sufficiently to enable one hun- 
dred axemen under Captain J. T. Mackey of Captain J. T. 
Hogane's Engineers' Company (Marmaduke's division) 
to clear the stream of the Blue from the fallen trees which 
had been thrown into it, and so make a crossing possible. 
After an hour and a half of desperate work on the part of 
these axemen and the dismounted cavalry of Shelby's 
brigade who were covering them with their fire, a passage- 
way across the stream was made directly opposite the 
Thirteenth Kansas Regiment (commonly known as the 
"Johnson County Regiment") under Colonel A. S. John- 
son, being a part of Colonel Jennison's First Brigade. This 
occurred at almost exactly 5 o'clock in the afternoon. This 
regiment, composed of wholly new and untrained re- 
cruits, gave way and struck out toward Kansas and home 
at a record-breaking gait, though they presently met an 
officer of the regular army, Major T. I. McKenny, In- 
spector-General of Curtis' force, who was seeking infor- 
mation as to how the fight was going, and who promptly 
drew his revolver and swore that he would kill the first 
man who took another running step. This checked their 
speed and they continued their retreat in more decent 
order. 

Having effected this break in Curtis' line, Price threw 
the full strength of Shelby's and Fagan's brigades through 
the gap, and soon flanked Jennison's and Moonlight's 
brigades, forcing the retreat of these also and cutting off 
completely General M. S. Grant and his militia of the 
Second and the Twenty-first Kansas regiments who were 
at Hickman's Mills Crossing, the men of the Second being 
captured and with them the twenty-four-pounder brass 



M*p No. 2- 



Showing Position of Forces at 3 to 4 p. m., October 22d. 




Scale, one-third inch to one miu 



l/rt/e Santo/i, 



Fac-simile of map made in 1864 by Lieutenant Geo. T. Robinson, to accompany Major-General S. R. Cur- 
tis' official report to the United States War Department on the Battle of Westport. 

A, A — Old Independence Road. B — Fifteenth Street crossing of the Big Blue River. C, C — Old line 
9f the Santa Fe Trail. D. D— Old Westport Road. E — Countiy Club grounds. F — Forest Hill Cemetery. 
S— Swope Park. H — Price's army, Fagan's division. I — Price's army. Marmaduke's division. J — 
Price's army, Shelby's division. K — Curtis' army, Jeunison's brigade. I, — Curtis' army, Moonlight's 
brigade. M — Curtis' army, Blair's brigade. N — Curtis' army, Ford's brigade. O — Curtis' army, troops 
under Deitzler. P — Pleasanton's army, Brown's (Phillips') brigade. Q — Pleasanton's army, McNeil's 
brigade. R — Pleasanton's army, Sanborn's brigade. S — Pleasanton's army, Winslow's brigade. T, T — 
Fortifications before Kansas City. U — Wagon-train with Price's army. 



The Battle of Westport. 77 

howitzer that was the property of the State of Kansas. 
General Grant made good his escape, as did Colonel G. W. 
Veale and his men of the Twenty-first. 

Jennison's and Moonlight's brigades, though forced 
from their positions and compelled to retreat westward, 
yet conducted that movement on a line parallel with 
Shelby's and Fagan's successful westward progress, Jen- 
nison halting before Westport village and Moonlight 
pushing to Shawneetown, where he secured food for his 
men and forage for their horses, against the fight on the 
morrow. A disagreement that arose between the com- 
manders of these brigades on the very field of battle at 
this time came very near allowing Shelby actually to 
enter and seize Westport itself. Jennison had been dis- 
missed from the service by Secretary Stanton, but had 
been re-commissioned by Governor Carney himself. As 
vShelby's advance toward Westport was well under way, 
after his successful forcing the crossing of the Big Blue, 
Jennison ordered Moonlight to advance in cooperation 
with him and check it. Moonlight refused to recognize 
Jennison as an officer, on the ground of his dismissal, and 
accordingly would receive no commands from him, and 
continued on his way to Shawneetown, where he had de- 
termined to rest his brigade over night. This left the 
head of Shelby's advance toward Westport opposed only 
by Jennison's men, when Major R. H. Hunt, Curtis' Chief 
of Artillery, perceived the situation and attacked Shelby 
with the mounted men of Curtis' escort — Company G of 
the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry — and the two howitzers at- 
tached to the staff. In later years General Shelby him- 
self always affirmed that this attack of Major Hunt's 



78 The Battle oe Westport. 

kept him from seizing the town of West port at this time, 
the evening of Saturday, the 2 2d. Jennison's men took 
position before West port and continued the fight until a 
late hour, one company of artillery firing uninterruptedly 
with their particular and much-beloved new brass twelve- 
pounder howitzer until its incessant reports attracted the 
attention of Brigadier-General Shelby himself. He called 
to Colonel Sidney D. Jackman, commanding Jackman's 
brigade of his division, and to Colonel F. B. Gordon of 
Gordon's Missouri Cavalry, and said: "Jackman, do you 

hear that gun? I 'm tired of its d d noise. Go over 

there and take it !" Immediately these two officers gath- 
ered portions of their commands and made a flank move- 
ment, concealed by a convenient corn-field, and suddenly 
charged out upon the busy gunners and captured them 
and their gun. With them were taken two Kansas ar- 
tillery flags, seized by Captain A. C. McCoy and Captain 
Carroll Wood of the Fifth Missouri Cavalry, and these 
officers promptly hunted up General Price on the field 
and presented him with these trophies. This Captain 
McCoy was among the most daring of the Confederate 
officers, being especially mentioned in not less than six 
reports by Price and Shelby. 

All these unexpected breaks and changes on the part 
of the forces composing his right wing at the Big Blue left 
General Curtis no alternative save to order the best pos- 
sible retreat, and as the evening twilight came on he or- 
dered his entire army to fall back clear to the trenches be- 
fore Kansas City and West port. This evacuated the line 
of works along the west bank of the disputed stream and 
permitted Price to ford it at all points and to place Mar- 



The Battle of Westport. 79 

maduke's division as a rear-guard in the very defences 
which Curtis had occupied during the day. At the same 
time Price's van, as we have seen, was already in the 
country before West port, west of the Big Blue and south 
of Brush Creek (see map), where it encamped for the 
night. Simultaneously with these movements Price or- 
dered his great wagon-train to set off as fast as possible 
southward, under escort of Brigadier-General W. h- Ca- 
bell and Colonel John Q. Burbridge, the latter with his 
Fourth Missouri Cavalry, the hope being to protect it 
from Federal capture and to have it rejoin Price when 
he should have passed the obstacles immediately in his 
front. 

On the part of Pleasanton's pursuing force, as night 
came on he moved through Independence and practically 
filled on the country between that town and the Big Blue, 
ready to begin the attack on Price's rear anew with the 
coming day. So closed Saturday, October 2 2d, 1864. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE BATTLE OE WESTPORT. — FROM DAWN TO 
EIGHT O'CLOCK. 

BEFORE entering upon the description of the bat- 
tle itself, certain moves made and orders given 
during the ensuing night must be noted, in view 
of their bearing upon the tactics and actions of 
the coming day. 

As we have seen, General Curtis ordered the majority 
of his weary Kansans to shelter entirely within the de- 
fence-lines that had been thrown up about the then little 
Kansas City. The exceptions to this order were the 
brigades of Jennison and Moonlight, the one having kept 
on Shelby's right flank till dark and then encamping in 
and around the village of Westport, the other spending 
the night close to Shawneetown. During the night the 
scouting and picket -work before the the trenches sur- 
rounding Kansas City was done by the Home Guards, 
the improvised force of citizens under Colonel Kersey 
Coates, in order that the Kansans might get as much res 
as possible before the next day's conflict. Loyal women 
baked bread and other provisions all night long and be- 
stowed them upon the worn and half-famished militia- 
men, while others welcomed officers and men alike to 
their tables and fed them by relays as long as the night 
and the food lasted. Ammunition-wagons moved 
through the lines all night and a special train was sent 

80 



The Battle oe Westport. 8i 

out to Jennison's force, that every soldier might have all 
the paper musket-cartridges he could carry for use in the 
coming fight. 

South of the earthworks about Kansas City all the 
pasture, corn-fields, timber-lands and farms, intersected 
chiefly by three country roads. These were the present 
Twelfth vStreet, leading eastward toward Independence; 
the Troost Avenue of the present, then extending through 
the country southward to Brush Creek and beyond; the 
third the present Westport road that zig-zags through the 
bluffs up from the Southwest Boulevard to the Westport 
district. Along the last two it was that Curtis' army 
moved out to the battle-field early in the morning of 
the 23d. 

Out in Pleasanton's lines, as they filled the country 
between Independence and the Big Blue, that General 
was making his plans for a final crushing assault on 
Price's rear. One of his brigades had had but little 
fighting up to this time — or so Pleasanton felt — having 
acted largely as a rear-guard, and this he determined 
should bear the brunt of the assault upon the Confed- 
erates at the stream. This was the first Brigade, Brig- 
adier-General Egbert B. Brown commanding. After Mc- 
Neil's and Sanborn's brigades had carried the town of 
Independence, as described, Pleasanton threw his Fourth 
Brigade to the fore, under Colonel E. F. Winslow of the 
Fourth Iowa Cavalry, and had it drive Price as hard as 
possible up till midnight. This it did, fighting and firing 
for hours after dark in order to disturb the Confederates 
to the utmost, in which hope they succeeded, to judge by 
the later comments of Brigadier-General John B. Clark 



82 The Battle oe Westport. 

of Marmaduke's escort, who was accordingly in the 
trenches opposite this nocturnal display, and whose sub- 
sequent report on the fighting of these days says: 

"Notwithstanding the almost impenetrable darkness 
of the night, they rushed upon us with a reckless fierce- 
ness that I have never seen equaled, giving us warning of 
a confidence reposed in the efficiency and number of their 
troops in case we were pressed to a general attack." 

At midnight this brigade finally ceased action and en- 
camped, being the nearest of all Pleasanton's forces to 
the trenches along the Big Blue in which Marmaduke 
and his rear-guard now lay. Between midnight and 
dawn Pleasanton sent orders to Brigadier-General E. B. 
Brown to move up with his brigade and Thurber's Bat- 
tery H of the Second Missouri Light Artillery, with its 
3-inch Rodman rifled field-pieces, and thus be ready at 
the first approach of light to pass Winslow, relieve him, 
and attack the enemy at the river with all possible vigor. 
The order to this effect was couched in exceedingly 
pointed language, saying : 

"As your command has as yet done no fighting, the 
General expects you to push them vigorously to-day. 
The Major-General commanding . will accept of 

no excuse for the non-fulfillment of this duty, but will 
hold you responsible." 

Unfortunately for General Brown he did not take the 
hint thus plainly given by his superior officer, and before 
the sun had risen he had experienced the bitterest morti- 
fication possible to a soldier. 

With this review of the events leading up to the Battle 
of Westport, and of the preparations made on the eve of 



Map No. 3. Showing Position of Forces during night of October 22d-23d. 



/& 01 




SCALC, ONE-THIRO INCH TO ONE 



irtf/e Santa f£\ 

Fac-simile of map made in 1864 by lieutenant Geo. T. Robinson, to accompany Major General S. R. Curtis 
official report to the United States War Department on the Battle of Westport. 

~r ,1, Ja A ~ Old Independence Road. B— Fifteenth Street crossing of the Big Blue River. C C— Old line 
r *J^ p ^iV ?' U T° ld West P° r t K°ad. K— Country Club grounds. F- Forest Hill CemeteVy 
Priee'T it™ ar «A iwT!t!5*- 8 arm 7' pagan's division. I— Price's trrny, Marmaduke's brigade^ J- 
ll\ a S y ' ^ he, . b y s division. K— Curtis' army, Jennison's brigade, t,— Curtis' army Moonlight's 
undlr nei^W CUr p 1S pi™ 7, fair's brigade N-Curtis' army, Ford's brigade. O-CurtTs-'armT roopf 
brigade RPlea^fnn a f a r™ nS C a T y ' f^*'* (Phillips') brigade. Q-Pleasanton's army, McNeil 
Sf'.. R— P le f as anion's army, Sanborn's brigade. S— Pleasanton's army, Winslow's brieade. T T— 
Fortifications before Kansas City. U— Wagon-train with Price's army. g ,l 



The Battle oe Westport. 85 

its occurrence, we shall now consider the events of the 
battle itself, describing them by dividing the day into 
such periods as embraced the chief actions on either side 
and in the various portions of that great field over which 
the fighting spread. 

From 3 a. m. till dawn. 

At 3 o'clock in the morning General Curtis sent word 
from Kansas to Colonel Jennison, ordering him to move 
immediately southward with his command so as to reach 
the enemy in the vicinity of Brush Creek, just south of 
West port, by earliest daylight, and at once to engage the 
enemy whom he would find there. In pursuance of this 
order Jennison 's brigade moved through West port village 
and to a point near where the present Wornall Road 
crosses the stream. Ford's brigade, which had spent the 
night on the hills near Westport, the men never taking 
the saddles from their horses, was to move forward on 
the left of Jennison's — i. e., between Westport and the 
point where Troost Avenue crosses Brush Creek to-day — 
and with it McLain's battery was to go into action, these 
guns having been taken into the defences about Kansas 
City during the night, but being back at Westport before 
dawn. The Twelfth Kansas State Militia was also to co- 
operate with these forces, Colonel L. S. Treat being in 
command. Colonel Moonlight and his Second Brigade, 
at Shawneetown, received orders to go into action on the 
right of the Federal line south of Westport — i. e., on a po- 
sition nearly parallel with the State Line — and thus to hold 
Price back from any attempt to escape into Kansas. Gen- 
erals Blunt, Deitzler, and Blair were to march with their 



86 The; Battle oe Westport. 

commands in time to go into action immediately following 
Jennison. Colonel Coates was to hold his Home Guards 
in the trenches about the city until it developed whether 
they would be needed on the field, and if so, where. Gen- 
eral Curtis himself would remain in the city until he 
should hear how the first fighting went, when he would go 
at once to whatever point needed his personal presence 
most. 

At midnight Pleasanton ordered McNeil to move with 
his brigade, together with Captain W. C. F. Montgomery's 
Battery L of the Second Missouri Light Artillery, toward 
the junction of the Independence and the Little Santa Fe 
roads, in order to head off the expected attempt at es- 
cape of Price's wagon-train, and in obedience to this order 
the brigade marched all night toward the designated po- 
sition. At 5 a. m. he ordered Sanborn to advance with 
his brigade to the assistance of Brigadier-General Brown, 
who ought to be just beginning his emphatically-ordered 
assault on the Confederate trenches at the Big Blue. At 
6 o'clock, to Pleasanton's horror, he received a message 
sent back from Colonel Winslow, whom Brown was to 
have relieved, asking where Brown and the relieving- 
force were. Pleasanton immediately mounted, sum- 
moned his staff, and galloped at full speed to the extreme 
forward line of his army, where he found Winslow's men 
still facing the enemy across the river and waiting to be 
allowed to fall back. The brigade of Brown was no- 
where to be seen, and finally Pleasanton found it still en- 
camped in Winslow's rear, with no sign of any activity 
on Brown's part. Pleasanton found Brown himself 
standing near a number of other officers who were making • 



Ths Battls of Westport. 87 

various preparations for entering with their commands 
the fight which was already vigorously under way in the 
woods along the Big Blue immediately in their front. 
Pleasanton checked his horse before General Brown and, 
shaking in Brown's face the cowhide whip which he al- 
ways carried when in the saddle, denounced him furiously 
for his inaction in view of the express orders he had re- 
ceived during the night. Brown replied that Winslow 
had made no room for his men to pass forward as di- 
rected. Pleasanton instantly ordered Brown to the rear 
under arrest, and with him Colonel James McFerran of 
the First Missouri Cavalry of Brown's brigade, saying as he 
did so that they were "ambulance-soldiers" and that the 
rear was where they belonged. He then demanded of 
the officers standing by: "Who is next in command 
here?" One of them replied: "Colonel Phillips is." 
"Where is he?" demanded Pleasanton. "Here I am, 
General," answered Phillips, who at the moment was 
sitting on the ground, changing his heavy cavalry-boots 
for a pair of lighter shoes, the better to lead on foot his 
men of the Seventh Missouri Cavalry, whom he had dis- 
mounted and sent into the timber in front to enter the 
fight, placing them under the command of Lieutenant- 
Colonel T. T. Crittenden until he himself should overtake 
them. "Well, what are you doing down there?" said 
Pleasanton, looking down at him. Phillips answered: 
' ' I am getting ready to push my men into that fight down 
there, where they have already gone." "Well, I see that 
the men of your regiment want a fight, and they shall 
have it," said Pleasanton. "You take charge of this en- 
tire brigade and go down there and put those people 
—6— 



88 The; Battle; op Wpstport. 

out!" — meaning, of course, the Confederates under Mar- 
maduke along the west bank of the stream in the timber 
before them. Colonel Phillips (now Judge John F. Phil- 
lips of the United States Court at Kansas City) immedi- 
ately remounted, placed Lieutenant -Colonel Crittenden 
(later Governor of Missouri, 1 881-1885) in entire charge 
of the Seventh Regiment, ordered Lieutenant-Colonel 
B. F. Lazear to take McFerran's place in command of the 
First, and prepared to lead Brown's brigade into action. 
General Brown, save for some protesting reports to 
Rosecrans, Halleck, and the army authorities at Wash- 
ington, and a subsequent acquittal by a court-martial, 
passed out of the history of his country.* 

*While the immediately foregoing statements are in exact ac- 
cordance with the events described, and will be found to correspond 
exactly with the official reports, it is but fair to the memory of Gen- 
eral Brown to add, even at this late date, that there were two sides 
to the story. Officers of high rank and unimpeachable integrity 
personally vouch for it that General Pleasanton's attitude toward 
many of his subordinates during this campaign, and especially in 
these actions, was one of needlessly harsh and acrimonious criticism. 
Fresh from the fierce conflicts of the far more experienced and 
better organized armies of the East, he showed plainly that his 
opinion of the fighting-spirit of the Western volunteers and militia 
was low indeed. Not only did he treat General Brown as described, 
refusing to receive any explanation whatever from Brown himself, 
but he bitterly censured Brigadier-General McNeil, whose brigade 
did such superior work in the battle at Independence; denounced 
Curtis and his men and arrested some of the Kansas officers on the 
field, in spite of the fact that they were not under him; and refused 
to allow any of the Kansas troops to act as escort for the prisoners 
taken in the engagement. It is undeniably true that Brown's dil- 
atoriness greatly interfered with the completeness of the Federal 
victory; that McNeil was deceived — as we shall presently see — by a 
clever trick on the part of Cabell and the escort accompanying 
Price's wagon-train; and that the raw recruits under Curtis dis- 
played a marked agility in making for the rear on more than one 
occasion. But it is also true that a man of a less bitter spirit that 
Pleasanton would not have acted toward the men and the officers 
under him as he acted. 



The: Battle of Wsstport. 89 

It was fully 8 o'clock before Phillips could move 
Brown's brigade forward and lead it against the Big 
Blue, and the time that had elapsed allowed Marmaduke's 
division so to prepare for the attack against it that it is 
probable that this delay alone was sufficient to prevent 
Price from being crushed, as well as defeated, on the 
field of Westport* 

From dawn to eight o'clock. 

By the time that the first rays of light appeared in the 
east, with promise of a beautiful Sabbath day, clear and 
cool, the Kansas soldiers under Jennison, Blunt and 
Deitzler had moved out to the south of Westport village 
and were making their way through the timber that lined 
the banks of Brush Creek. At the same hour the brigades 
under Colonels Ford (on the left) and Moonlight (on the 
right) had reached the positions assigned them in the 
orders of the night and were joining in the general move 
upon the enemy's stand on the open ground south of 
the woods. 

Two points in regard to the field of the Battle of West- 
port must be noted if the actions of the day are to be 
correctly placed, and these may be noted by reference to 
the accompanying maps, fac-similes of one drawn at the 
time by Lieutenant Robinson of Curtis' engineer corps. 
To-day the narrow stream of Brush Creek follows the 
same channel as in 1864, but the timber along its course 
has been narrowed to a strip of hardly more than a few 
yards in width in many places. But at the time of the 
battle all the country on either side the stream was either 
farm-land or timber, and a heavy growth of tall tiees ex- 
tended on either side the creek-bed, half a mile from the 



90 The Battle of Westport. 

stream in many places, and it was along the southern 
side of this strip that the principal actions of the battle 
occurred, placing the field of the main conflict farther 
from the stream than would appear at a first survey of 
the ground to-day. The Fifty-first Street of to-day, 
from near the Country Club eastward to Troost Avenue, 
corresponds very nearly to the southern line of the timber 
as it stood in 1864, and therefore marks the northern edge 
of the battle on the open ground. 

The second marked change in the aspect of the field 
of Westport since 1 864 consists in the fact that the high- 
way known to-day as the Wornall Road was then sub- 
ordinate in importance to the State Line Road, that 
ancient route whose obscure, rough and unpaved exist- 
ence is unknown to-day to many of even the riding, 
driving and automobiling class of Kansas Cityans. Fur- 
thermore the road that to-day forms the southern boun- 
dary of the Country Club grounds — Fifty-fifth Street 
west of the Wornall Road — did not, in 1864, run directly 
into the State Line Road at right angles, as it does to-day, 
but reached it by a diagonal, running southwest and 
northeast, that passed to the south of the old cemetery 
just west of the Ward Farm. Of this old bit of road the 
remains are distinctly visible to-day, and they mark al- 
most exactly the spot where Moonlight's brigade, coming 
from Shawneetown on the morning of the 23d, went into 
action against the Confederates whom they found on the 
open ground before them. (See the maps and photo- 
graphs.) 

On the Confederate side, Price had drawn up his army 
in a long line that practically extended from Westport, 



The Battle oe Westport. 91 

his van, to the Big Blue, his rear. Beginning before West- 
port, the first third of this line of battle was formed by- 
Shelby's division, concentrated at this point. Next to 
the eastward came Fagan's division, extending toward 
Troost Avenue and beyond. The easternmost and rear 
third of the line was formed by Marmaduke's strong 
force before Pleasanton, at the Byram's Ford of the Big 
Blue, and occupying the trenches from which the Kan- 
sans under Curtis had been driven at the close of the 
afternoon before. 

As the sun rose clear, the Kansans under Jennison, 
Blunt, Ford, and Deitzler marched boldly into the timber 
south of Brush Creek, when they immediately came into 
contact with Shelby's ever-ready troopers, who, charging 
to the accompaniment of the famous "rebel yell," vig- 
orously rushed them back through the woods and to the 
north side of the creek again, where they re-formed in 
line on the hill north of the creek and contented them- 
selves for the time with artillery-firing from that point. 
Shelby's charging horsemen established themselves in 
the woods on the edge of the bluffs south of the creek, 
and the immediately subsequent actions consisted chiefly 
of an exchange of fire from howitzers and field-guns, 
many of the shells from the Confederate guns passing 
over the Kansans' position and falling in the streets of 
the village of Westport, one in particular exploding in 
Shawnee Street, just north of the old Harris House. 

A particularly daring detachment of Shelby's brigade 
made an attempt to descend the bluffs along the creek, 
thinking to cross the stream and make a dash upon the 
left wing of the Kansans' line on the opposite hill, but 



92 The Battle oe Westport. 

the move was detected and two regiments of Kansas 
militia charged into the creek-bed and with several steady 
volleys drove the daring Confederates back. The little 
action is notable in that the move of this handful of 
Shelby's men represents practically the high-tide mark 
of Price's entire invasion — not that it was the most 
northern point reached, for the taking of Glasgow, in 
Howard County, was the most northern move made 
during the campaign — but it was the last aggressive ad- 
vance made by any of Price's men in the line of his or- 
iginal goals of Kansas City and Fort Leavenworth. The 
two Kansas regiments that repulsed this attack were the 
Fifth Kansas State Militia under Colonel G. A. Colton 
and the Nineteenth Kansas, led at this time by Colonel 
A. C. Hogan (so reported by General Blunt), though this 
officer commanded the Fourth Kansas at other times and 
is named as its Colonel. This Nineteenth Regiment was 
one of the latest accessions to Curtis' forces, having 
reached Kansas City only on the 21st, and having been 
assigned to the Third Brigade by order of General G. W. 
Deitzler. 

A second charge of the entire Kansas line was made in 
an attempt to re-take the bluffs and timber on the south 
side of the creek, but Shelby's men had a strong position 
there (on either side the point where the Wornall Road 
south of Westport winds up the long, steep hill south of 
the creek) and the attack was at a great disadvantage, 
the Kansans "coming tumbling back," as an eye-witness 
described it, almost as soon as the attempt was made. 
Major-General Deitzler tried to force the howitzer bat- 
teries of the Kansas troops across the stream and through 




Plate I. 

Old hotel, the "Harris House," in Westport. Used by Major- 
General S. R. Curtis as a field headquarters from 7:30 to 10:30 
a. m. on October 23d. 



The Battle of Wdstport. 95 

the opposite timber, but the woods were so thick, the 
slope so steep, and the resistance to this move so sharp, 
that General Blunt and he sent word to General Curtis, 
in Kansas City, that they could not take the hills under 
the existing circumstances. 

Curtis galloped at full speed to the village of West port, 
reaching there at half-past 7 o'clock and immediately se- 
lecting the old hotel, the Harris House, as his headquar- 
ters. Hurrying up to its roof he surveyed the field of 
battle and the actions that had already occurred were 
pointed out to him. A young Kansas politician named 
Plumb, later the well-known Senator Plumb of Kansas, 
was with Curtis at this time as a volunteer aide. Another 
aide was Mr. J. L. Norman, now (1906) President of the 
Board of Education of Kansas City. From the roof of 
the hotel Curtis could see the fighting south of West port 
plainly indicated by the smoke that rose from the brig- 
ades of Blunt, Blair, Deitzler, Ford and Jennison, with 
that of Moonlight farther to the west (the right wing) , all 
of whom were engaged with Shelby's and Fagan's di- 
visions of Confederates. The indications were plain that 
the Kansans were being held in check completely at the 
time, and such was the case, for from 6 to 8 o'clock the 
Federal forces along the creek and before West port were 
met with very general and repeated repulses and were 
compelled to retire from each attack. For nearly an 
hour Curtis allowed the battle to continue in this position, 
several attempts being made to force the Confederates 
back from the hills immediately south of the creek, but 
without success save on the part of Ford's brigade, which 
finally managed to establish itself in the edge of the 



96 The; Battle of Westport. 

timber on the south of the creek. Moonlight's brigade, 
on the Kansans' right, also managed to gain ground 
against Shelby's men during this time, due largely to the 
fact that his position was one which partially flanked the 
Confederates against him. 

Before taking up the next move in this part of the 
field, however, it must be seen what had been going on dur- 
ing these hours in the neighborhood of the Big Blue, where 
Price's rear under Marmaduke was endeavoring to beat 
back Pleasanton's pursuit — if pursuit that may be called, 
which had become a wide and fierce charge across a 
stream and against an entrenched foe. What Pleasant on 
was now trying to do was exactly what Price had had to 
try the day before, and had eventually succeeded in ac- 
complishing, as we have seen. Good use had been made 
by the Confederates of the delay afforded by Brown's 
tardiness, and of the eight heavy rifled Parrott cannon 
with Price's artillery (two of which had been captured 
from Marmaduke's men in Independence the afternoon 
before), three had been sent forward to be used in Shelby's 
fight before Westport, while the remaining three had been 
placed so as to sweep the roads, fords and country at and 
beyond the Big Blue. It was against these that Pleas- 
anton's advance moved, the First Brigade now under Col- 
onel Phillips, the Third under Brigadier-General San- 
born, and the Fourth under Colonel Winslow. Several 
vain attempts were made by these forces to force the 
crossing of the stream. At many points along the river 
the timber was so thick that cavalry could only be ad- 
vanced, if mounted, in columns of fours along the roads, 
and one such charge upon the entrenchments of Marma- 




J. L. Norman. 
Volunteer aide on staff of General S. R. Curtis. 




Plate II. 

View from the roof of the old hotel, the " Harris House," looking; 
southwest toward Brush Creek and the high ground beyond, the 
field of fighting between Curtis' army and Shelby's and Pagan's 
divisions of Price's army in the early morning of the 23d. It was 
from this point that Major-General Curtis watched the progress of 
the battle up to the hour of personally leading the successful charge 
of his forces upon the left (west) flank of Price's lines. 



The Battle of Westport. ioi 

duke's men proved fearfully costly in killed and wounded. 
Indeed, the roads that crossed the Big Blue toward Mar- 
maduke's cannon were strewn — one eye-witness says 
"piled" — with dead horses and men. The only thing 
that could avail was to dismount the entire three brig- 
ades and charge the stream on foot, and at Colonel Phil- 
lips' orders this was done. It was costly work, for every 
officer who participated reports that "the fighting was 
the fiercest possible at this point," or words to the same 
effect. Several hundred men fell in this action. The 
actual manner of crossing and its accomplishment must 
come under the next period of the day's fighting-time. 

It may be mentioned at this point, however, that 
McNeil's midnight march with his brigade and Mont- 
gomery's battery of the Second Missouri Light Artillery 
to demonstrate against and if possible capture Price's 
wagon-train, came to naught. McNeil came in sight of 
the train when some two or three miles south of the main 
attack on Marmaduke at the river, and saw the hundreds 
of wagons making off southward and apparently under 
heavy escort, accompanied by thousands of horsemen. 
Some of this surprisingly numerous escort were indeed a 
fighting-force — the guard under General Cabell and Col- 
onel Burbridge which Price had sent with the train — ■ 
but by far the greater number were the the asand or more 
unarmed men (Price says, "several thousand") who had 
gathered to Price's army and had been assigned to the 
duties of the wagon-train. Seeing McNeil's threatening 
advance toward them when it was still some two miles 
or more on their left, and thus north of them, and seeing 
that that advance halted on discovering them, it occurred 



102 The Battle of Westport. 

to the Confederate officers with the train that possibly 
the attack could be averted by a further display of their 
apparent strength. At General Cabell's orders the 
wagons were rushed ahead, the howitzers of his brigade 
were put into action, the mounted men were drawn up 
in line of battle, the unarmed horsemen were marched 
and countermarched and finally thrown out to right and 
left in a seemingly overpowering array, on which McNeil 
later reported, in all innocence as to the true nature of 
this force, that it far out-flanked him on both wings. In 
addition to this display, the long, dry grass of the prairie 
was set on fire, and the wind drove the smoke and flame 
directly toward the pursuers, while the Confederates kept 
up a brisk fire through this screen. The ruse produced 
a most successful impression on McNeil, and his brigade 
kept its distance throughout the entire day, never coming 
to closer quarters, and the train made good its escape, 
for that day and the next at least. In his reports to 
Rosecrans, General Pleasanton urged that action be taken 
against McNeil for his hesitation to attack this appar- 
ently great force, and he was later tried by court-martial 
at St. Louis and suspended for three months, but his ap- 
peal to the Judge-Advocate was sustained, and he was 
restored to rank and dutv. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE BATTLE OF WESTPORT. — FROM EIGHT 
O'CLOCK TO NOON. 

BETWEEN 9:30 and 10 o'clock General Curtis sent 
orders along his entire line of Kansans saying 
that he would now personally take the front 
and lead a general advance, and that he would 
expect every regiment to move forward to close quarters 
with the enemy. The order was promptly responded to, 
and on the extreme right and left wings of the line the 
brigades of Moonlight and Ford were successful in forcing 
back their own opponents of Shelby's and Fagan's di- 
visions, driving them out of the timber on the south of 
the creek and forcing them to seek the welcome protection 
of a great number of stone fences that bordered the fields 
of the open country, and which they promptly used as 
improvised breastworks. 

On Curtis' own first attempt to go forward before 
Westport he was not as successful. He attempted to 
lead the men under Jennison, Blunt and Deitzler, to- 
gether with some of the artillery, up the hill as they had 
tried to go before. Major R. H. Hunt, Chief of Curtis' 
artillery, was with him in this attempt and the artillery 
consisted of the Ninth Wisconsin Battery and the two 
mountain howitzers regularly attached to Curtis' staff 
and commanded by a vigorous little Welsh artillery 
officer, Lieutenant Edward Gill, well known in later years 

103 



io4 The Battle oe Westport. 

as Rev. Edward Gill, long Presiding Elder of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church at Manhattan, Kansas. Again 
the steepness of the bluffs and the steady fire of Shelby's 
men on the crest prevented success. Then occurred a 
most interesting event. A very old and feeble man, a 
resident of a little farm in the vicinity, made his way with 
tottering steps toward where General Curtis was re- 
forming his repulsed troops, and begged a moment's 
hearing. "This aged Missouri patriot," as General Cur- 
tis' report calls him, undaunted by the sights and sounds 
of conflict, himself unarmed and supporting his age with 
great difficulty, had correctly grasped the situation and 
its only remedy. He explained to General Curtis that he 
knew where there was a gap or slope in the rocky ridge on 
the south of the creek, that had proved so unimpregnable, 
and would point it out. Curtis at once bade him lead the 
way, and the old man conducted the officers and their 
following troops to a much more gentle acclivity, some 
few hundred yards west of where the Wornall Road now 
crosses Brush Creek, up the ravine to the westward of 
the present bridge over the stream. This was not only 
easy of ascent, but it was also close to the west end of 
Shelby's line and offered opportunity for a flanking move- 
ment, and through this gap and up the slope poured 
Curtis' now dismounted cavalry and their artillery. 
General Curtis begged the old patriot to mount a horse 
and accompany him and his staff throughout the day, as 
a mark of gratitude for the really very great service that 
he had done them, but — to quote General Curtis' later 
description of the event — "the weary veteran refused to 
ride, but sunk down with delight and exhaustion when 



The Battle oe Westport. 105 

he saw the success of our guns . . . the rebellion 
vanishing before him, and his home and country free." 
(Mr. Joseph L. Norman, before mentioned, was riding at 
General Curtis' side during the whole of this incident, 
and he wrote the account of it which Curtis later turned 
in as part of his report.) 

On thus reaching the more open timber south of the 
creek and on the edge of the level prairie, General Curtis 
immediately opened on the enemy before him with the 
guns of Colonel J. H. Dodge's Ninth Wisconsin Battery 
from Fort Riley, McLain's battery, and the several small 
howitzers under Major R. H. Hunt, resulting imme- 
diately in shaking the firmness of Shelby's men and 
driving them still farther out upon the prairie. With 
the opening of the artillery fire, the Kansans under Blunt, 
Deitzler and Jennison emerged from the timber, coming 
out upon the open ground near the spot where the Country 
Club House stands to-day. In this immediate vicinity 
every man and every gun was put into aggressive action, 
and the firing became steady from west of the Country 
Club east nearly or quite to the present Troost Avenue. 
Once gaining the ground south of the creek and the tim- 
ber, many of the Kansans displayed a spirit in favorable 
contrast to their late retreats before Shelby's attacks. 
Many of them now moved forward eagerly, slipping from 
tree to tree, and from one fence to another, watching 
their opportunities and shooting like hunters as they 
caught a favorable opportunity for a chance at one of the 
foe. This stage of the battle was reached at almost 
exactly 11 o'clock. 



106 The Battle oe Westport. 

When the Federal advance over the present Country 
Club grounds and the adjoining Ward Farm began, the 
right flank of the advancing line was severely treated by 
a number of Confederate sharp-shooters and riflemen, 
who had posted themselves in and among brick buildings 
of the farm. General Blunt directed Colonel Blair to at- 
tack the place, and with the Nineteenth Kansas, dis- 
mounted, he drove the sharp-shooters out with severe 
loss. This particular action may be regarded as the point 
of successfully turning Price's left flank, the west end of 
Shelby's leading division. 

At almost the exact time that General Curtis and the 
batteries had reached the open ground south of the creek, 
there had been some very desperate and hand-to-hand 
fighting east of the Wornall Road and toward Troost 
Avenue. Ford's brigade, which had been the first to 
gain a foot-hold on the ground south of the stream, had 
met with strong resistance from the Confederates shel- 
tered behind the stone fences mentioned. Similar fight- 
ing now began in the vicinity of the present Country Club 
grounds as the two armies closed with one another. 
The Confederate officers saw at once that the. success of 
the Federal movements at these points was fraught with 
utmost danger to their position and bent every attempt 
to check it. The three Parrott guns which have been 
mentioned as forwarded from the Big Blue earlier in the 
day had just arrived, and were at once planted a few hun- 
dred yards southeast of the Country Club grounds and 
directed a hot fire upon the Federals. Jennison imme- 
diately placed McLain's battery in the road at a point 
not far from the present Club House and began a vigorous 




Plate III. 

Part of the field tf conflict between Curtis' army and Shelby's 
and Fagan's divisions of Price's army, on the high ground south of 
Brush Creek. The picture is taken from the present Country Club, 
where Curtis' artillery was placed immediately after gaining the 
high ground, and the view is in the line of fire of these guns. The 
duel between Colonel J. H. McGhee and Captain Curtis Johnson, 
described in the text, took place on the slope beyond the pond 
shown in the picture. 



The; Battle of 1 Westport. 109 

reply. At once McGhee's regiment of Arkansas cavalry- 
charged in column against these guns, their Colonel at 
their head. Jennison shouted to Captain Curtis Johnson 
of Company B, Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and 
these two officers led this company and two squadrons 
of the Second Colorado Cavalry, under Captain Green, in 
a desperate counter-charge upon the approaching Con- 
federates. The two masses of horsemen met at full 
speed and a short but fierce fight followed, ranging from 
the old Wornall House to the present lake on the Country 
Club grounds, in which the Kansans lost 15 men. As the 
two forces came together, Captain Johnson singled out 
the leader of the Confederates and dashed at him for a 
personal encounter. Both drew their revolvers, pre- 
ferring them to the saber, and a duel between them took 
place in the very midst of the melee of plunging horses 
and clashing sabers, cracking pistols and shouting men. 
McGhee fired first, shooting Johnson in the left arm and 
inflicting a severe and painful wound and one that dis- 
abled him for many weeks to come. But on receiving 
the wound Johnson spurred his horse still closer and 
with his Colt revolver shot McGhee through the heart, 
dropping him dead from his horse upon the field. (This 
Captain Curtis Johnson seems to have been a man as 
modest as fearless, for he was subsequently highly men- 
tioned in the reports of not less than six officers, himself 
making no mention of this occurrence.) The fall of their 
Colonel disheartened the Confederate column and they 
broke and fled, leaving nearly 100 of their number en- 
closed in the Kansans' line as prisoner. Twenty-five or 
more fearfully wounded members of McGhee's regiment 



no The Battle; of 1 Westport. 

were left in the vicinity of the Wornall House as the 
charge fell back, the body of their Colonel among them. 
Dead horses, dropped sabers, blankets, guns, saddles, 
and the like strewed the ground at the point of this 
close and deadly encounter. The Confederate Brigadier- 
General M. Jeff Thompson in his official reports after the 
battle mentions this charge as one of the events of the 
day that turned the tide of battle most disastrously 
against Price and his men. General Blunt witnessed the 
entire action and at once ordered Jennison to lead a 
counter-charge. Only one squadron of the Second Col- 
orado was available at the moment, but they drew sabers 
and, with Jennison at their head, drove home nearly to 
the battery of Parrott guns. One of these guns, by the 
way, while firing at this time, was itself struck on the 
muzzle by a Federal shot and was left disabled on the 
field when the later retreat occurred. Many who later 
saw this abandoned piece reported that it had burst, but 
we shall presently have proof that such was not the case. 
Jennison halted his line as near the Confederate firing-line 
as he dared — that line being now steadily though slowly 
falling back — and sent for reinforcements to come up to 
him, while upon the retreating enemy whom he had been 
pursuing the entire artillery force of the Kansans' thir- 
teen howitzers and eighteen brass Parrott guns began to 
fire anew and with telling effect. 

It may as well be said just here, and cannot be too 
strongly emphasized, that while the entire engagement 
fought this day has been given the name of the Battle of 
Westport and is popularly supposed to have centered in 
the vicinity of that village, yet the severest and most im- 



Map No 4" Showing Position of Forces at 8 to 10 a. m., October 23d. 




5calE, ONt-THiBO INCH TO ONE MlVC 



i/ff/e San'afi 

Facsimile of map made in 1864 by Lieutenant Geo. T. Robinson, to accompany Major-General S. R. Curtis' 
official report to the United States War Department on the Battle of Wcstport. 

A A — Old Independence Road. B — Fifteenth Street crossing of the Big Blue River. C, C — Old line 
)f the Santa Fe Trail. U, D — Old Westport Road. E — Country Club grounds. F — Forest Hill Cemetery. 
3 T~ s wope Park. H — Price's army, Fagan's division. I — Price's army, Marmaduke's division. J — 
Price's army, Shelby's division. K — Curtis' army, Jennisou's brigade, t, — Curtis' army, Moonlight's 
jngade. M — Curtis' army, Blair's brigade. N — Curtis' army, Ford's brigade. O — Curtis' army, troops 
mder Deitzler. P — Pleasanton's army, Brown's (Phillips') brigade. Q — Pleasanton's army, McNeil's 
jngade. R — Pleasanton's army, Sanborn's brigade. S — Pleasanton's army, Winslow's brigade. T T — 
fortifications before Kansas City. U — Wagon-train with Price's army. 
—7— 




Plate IV. 

Present aspect of the east approach to By ram's Ford. Scene 
of the crossing of Phillips' (Brown's), Winslow's. and Sanborn's 
brigades in their attack on PriceVrear-guard under Marmaduke. 



The Battle oe Westport. 115 

portant actions of the conflict were those conducted at 
the crossing of the Big Blue by Brown's brigade under 
Colonel Phillips and Winslow's brigade under Colonel 
Winslow and (later) under Lieutenant -Colonel F. W. Ben- 
teen, both in their forcing of Marmaduke's resistance at 
this point and in their later arrival on the field of West- 
port. The heaviest losses in both officers and men suf- 
fered by any troops in the battle occurred in these brig- 
ades and at this point. And had it not been for the ar- 
rival of these forces on the field south of Brush Creek 
where Curtis and his men were engaged with Shelby and 
Fagan, it would have been a far different story that would 
have been written. This we shall now see. 

As last described, Brown's brigade (now Phillips') 
and Sanborn's were being dismounted, their attempts to 
cross the stream in the face of the entrenched enemy 
having proven unsuccessful. They were accordingly 
formed in line of battle and advanced to the east bank of 
the river, from which position they began a heavy fire 
across the stream. Colonel Phillips deemed that a flank- 
ing movement might be successful, and sent Major George 
W. Kelley with the Fourth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry 
to make an attempt at the south end of Marmaduke's line. 
It took Kelley two hours to make sure of a place where 
the river could be crossed, for his men were retarded not 
only by the presence and the fire of the enemy, but by the 
trees felled in the stream all along its course. During 
this entire time every man on both sides was hotly en- 
gaged and Kelley's horse shot under him, but at last a 
place was found where a crossing was possible, and where, 
indeed, the nearest Confederates were driven back from 
their side of the river. 



n6 The; Battle of Westport. 

This point was the then widely-known Byram's Ford 
Crossing. Constantly in use at that day, on the main 
line of the road leading from Independence to the country 
south of Kansas City, it has since become unusable owing 
to shifts in the channel of the stream and is even almost 
unknown to many residents in the neighborhood, while 
the old roads that once led to it have many of them been 
fenced off and the ground around it cleared of this heavy 
timber and made into farms. In 1864, however, it was 
an easy crossing at a point where the river was wide and 
shallow, bordered by thick woods through which the 
roads approaching the ford passed. Deciding to move 
against this point, Phillips threw every available man 
against the weakened resist nice of Marmaduke's men, 
and the crossing was made not only at the ford itself, 
but at points for a quarter of a mile on either side, the 
Fourth Cavalry under Kelley, the Seventh under Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Crittenden, and the First under Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel B. F. Lazear wading over in this order, the 
men all dismounting and holding their arms above their 
heads as they waded, some of them waist - deep, their 
horses being held in the timber on the east bank. As 
this strong force was plainly seen moving in the timber 
near the ford the officers of Marmaduke's division moved 
all their men back from the river to the crest of a long 
sloping hill west of and commanding the river. Forming 
in a strong line here, making use of several rail fences, log 
houses, etc., they placed their howitzers and three Par- 
rott guns in position and opened a heavy cross-fire upon 
the ford and the woods in its immediate vicinity. (The 
twelve-pounder shell shown in Plate X was fired at this time 




Plate V. 

Old log house around which Marmaduke's rear-guard division 
•of Price's army made a second stand when driven back from its 
first position at Byram's Ford of the Big Blue River. Originally 
stood in a small clearing in heavy woods. The logs composing the 
structure still plainly exhibit many bullet-marks. 




Plate VI. 

View from point where Phillips' (Brown's) brigade halted and 
lay down in their charge on Marmaduke's position. Looking back 
toward Byram's Ford, over the ground covered by Phillips' ad- 
vance. Log house standing during the battle shown in left middle 
ground. Byram's Ford lies in the hollow under the white mark on 
the horizon. The " Little Santa Fe Road," by which Pleasanton's 
army moved against Price's rear-guard, passed close to the houses 
een on the horizon at the left of the picture. 



The Battle of Westport. 121 

having been plowed up recently near the old ford.) In 
spite of this vigorous opposition Phillips' brigade waded 
the stream, in crossing which several men and horses were 
killed, and rushed up the high bank on the west side, 
their relief on reaching a position on its top from which 
they could reply to the fire, finding vent in a great cheer 
all along their line. On getting all the men of his brigade 
across the river Colonel Phillips urged them at a double- 
quick through the woods on the west bank to charge the 
Confederates' second position without delay. Before 
that position, as it has been described, there lay a wide, 
open field, forming the face of the hill, some three hun- 
dred yards square, steep and with stumps and rocks 
cropping out everywhere. There was no way directly to 
attack the strong position of Marmaduke's men on the 
crest of this hill except by moving directly up the hill 
through this open field, which the Confederate cannon 
and musketry-fire completely commanded, and which 
was instantly swept by sheets of lead and iron at the first 
appearance of Phillips' men in the timber at its lower 
edge. Twice Colonel Phillips tried to force a charge up 
the hill, but although he — the only mounted man among 
the Federals at the moment — rode ahead of them, the 
fire down the slope was so fierce that even the veterans 
of his command would not face it, and lay down on the 
ground behind the stumps and rocks and began to answer 
the enemy with their rifles, carbines and Colt's revolvers. 
At this moment Phillips was dismayed to find that his 
men were running out of ammunition. It appeared that 
General Brown, in addition to having failed to move at 
dawn as ordered, had failed to provide his troops with 



122 The Battle of Westport. 

ammunition, in spite of messages sent him saying that it 
was at his disposal, and also in spite of a later report of 
his (October 27th) in which he asserted that he had not 
failed so to do. Phillips sent Major Kelley back in haste 
for both ammunition and reinforcements, both of which 
were sent, the latter in the shape of Colonel Winslow's 
brigade, under Lieutenant -Colonel F. W. Benteen, Wins- 
low himself being at the time in command of the entire 
division. In the meantime the Confederates had taken 
advantage of the pause in the attack more firmly to es- 
tablish themselves in their position in the timber on the 
crest of the hill, and their fire was such that many officers 
among the Federal force subsequently expressed their 
wonder that any of their men ever survived. "They oc- 
cupied not only the ground, but the very tree-tops as 
well," to quote from one officer's report, their sharp- 
shooters climbing into trees and singling out the Federal 
officers with deadly accuracy, not less than seven line 
officers and one field officer being shot at this point. 
The field officer was Colonel Winslow himself, who, with 
Lieutenant-Colonel Benteen beside him, was bringing up 
at a running charge one hundred men of the Fourth Mis- 
souri under Captain C. P. Knispel, a battalion of the 
Fourth Iowa under Captain E. W. Dee, and a regiment 
of the Missouri militia. He led them at a run past where 
Phillips' men were lying on the ground replying to the 
enemy's fire. As he passed, Colonel Phillips shouted to 
him, ' ' Do n't try to go in there, Colonel ! No man can 
live there !" Winslow did not hear him and went on, but 
had not ridden an hundred feet farther when he was hit 
in the leg by a rifle-ball and fell from his horse, severely 




Plate VII. 

View up the hill where Phillips' (Brown's), Sanborn's, and 
Winslow's brigades made their final and decisive charge against Mar- 
maduke's second position. At the time of the battle a heavy belt, 
of woods bordered the crest of the slope shown, along the horizon- 
line, in the edge of which Marmaduke's division was posted. The 
Federal charge moved directly up the hill in the line of view shown. 
The man in the picture is standing near the spot where Colonel E. F. 
Winslow of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry (Fourth Brigade, Pleasanton's- 
Army) was shot from his horse, and the child is standing near 
where Lieutenant-Colonel T. T. Crittenden, commanding the 
Seventh Missouri State Militia Cavalry (First Brigade, Pleasanton's- 
army), was wounded. 




Plate VIII. 
View from Marmaduke's second position looking over the field 
of the final and decisive charge of the Federal forces toward the log 
house and Bvram's Ford in the distance. Marmaduke s line was 
drawn up Tin the edge of heavy timber, from the spectator's position 
SlS fence seen at the extreme left of the picture ; ^hp* 
l Brown's), Sanborn's, and Winslow's brigades charged direct^ ojer 
the ground shown, from the log house and large tree toward the 
spectator The bullets shown in Plate X. were plowed up at this 
p^int The carrying of this position by the Federal charge was the 
deciding action in the entire Battle of Westport. 



The Battle oe Westport. 127 

wounded, though he subsequently recovered from the 
wound. He rallied sufficiently to turn over his command 
to Lieutenant-Colonel Benteen, and was then left lying 
on the field. When Winslow fell, his men halted, broke, 
and ran back toward the foot of the hill. Benton rallied 
them and led them back again to the charge, with the 
Third and Fourth Iowa regiments supporting them, 
having come up by this time. 

At this same time Lieutenant -Colonel Crittenden was 
also wounded. He was shot at by a Confederate sharp- 
shooter in a tree, in a position so conspicuous that the 
officer saw him and realized that the man was shooting 
at him. But the sharpshooter's aim was low, and the 
bullet struck the ground some twenty feet in front of 
Crittenden, ricochetting and striking the officer squarely 
upon a thick wad of the fractional paper currency of the 
day, "shin-plasters," as they were called, which was in 
a waistcoat pocket, and though the missile did not pierce 
farther the force of the blow hurled him to the ground, 
producing great sickness, pallor and agony. His fellow- 
officers thought he had been shot through the body, and 
Colonel Phillips hurried to his side, gave him a drink of 
some old peach brandy with which a friend had recently 
filled Phillips' canteen, examined the wound and found 
that it was not serious, and even found the bullet in the 
pocket where it had struck. 

Phillips then ordered his brigade up, and all the men 
on the field charged together up the slope in the face of 
the furious Confederate fire, reaching and breaking the 
Confederate fines, the men of Company A of the Third 
Iowa capturing a flag from a regiment of Marmaduke's 



128 The Battle oe Westport. 

division. As several officers report, "this was the fiercest 
and most sanguinary conflict of the entire engagement," 
the men closing with one another and fighting desperately 
with sabers and revolvers. The log cabins mentioned as 
near the Confederate position were so many centers of 
desperate hand-to-hand fighting, Marmaduke's men 
having entered them to fire from their protection and 
through their windows, and holding them till they were 
overpowered or shot down by the swarming Federals. 
The one old log house still standing and shown in one of 
the accompanying photographs still bears many bullet- 
marks, while an officer estimated that another, on the 
crest of the hill, had been hit 5,000 times in this fight. 
Much credit for the final charge was given by the officers 
to the steady work done by Battery H of Thurber's 
command of the Missouri Light Artillery, one section of 
which, under Lieutenant Philip Smiley, fired almost inces- 
santly, with canister and at short range, from 8 o'clock 
till after 1 1 . 

Phillips', Benteen's and Winslow's men were far more 
effectively armed than were Marmaduke's, the Seventh 
Missouri (Federal), being armed with the Smith breech- 
loading carbine, and at least one regiment of Winslow's 
brigade being armed with the Henry repeating rifle, .44 
caliber, the predecessor of the later Winchester lever- 
action repeater. Of these troops in action General W. L. 
Cabell later wrote: "The enemy, armed with Henry 
rifles, poured a rapid and scathing fire into our com- 
mands, which far exceeded any firing we could do from 
our muzzle-loading Enfield rifles." 




Ex-Go vernor T. T. Crittenden. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Seventh Missouri Cavalry, Brown's Brigade. 
Pleasanton's Armv. 



Mki c Showing Position of Forces at 10 a. m. to noon, October 23d. 
AP INO. O 




Scale, one-thiho inch QNC mile 



vfe Sanfa 

simile of map made in 1864 by lieutenant Geo. T. Robinson, to accompany M«jor-General S. R. Curtis' 
official report to the United States War Department on the Battle of Westport. 

A : A— Old Independence Road. B— Fifteenth Street crossing of the Big Blue River. C C— Old line 
e banta Fe Trail. D, D— Old Westport Road. E— Country Club grounds. F— Forest Hill Cemeteiy. 
.wope Park. H — Price's army, Fagan's division. I— Price's army, Marmaduke's division. J— 

I arm r y ' „}■? s dlvlslon - K— Curtis' army, Jennison's brigade. I,— Curtis' army, Moonl'gnt's 
£ . M ,— Curtls army, Blair's brigade. N— Curtis' army. Ford's brigade. O— Curtis' army, troops 
' r , Deit * ler - P— Pleasanton's army, Brown's (Phillips') brigade. Q— Pleasanton's army, McNeil's 
*2 e - K — Pleasanton s army, Sanborn's brigade. S— Pleasanton's army, Winslow's brigade. T T — 
locations before Kansas City. U — Wagon-train with Price's army. 



Henry 
as') brigad 
'ansas Citj 

Smith '. 
issouri (F 
rmies durii 


rt-» CD S 




SB P 

P — 


5' Q o 




s.p p 


S-*w 




3 g? 


pVjCfq 


ai 3s 


? o 


p * 


~'P 


2 






Otri" 


- P 


51 » f? 


— • j£ 


s-W 


3 ro 

— 2 


K p • 




— S £" 


CD 






2 cal 
le of 
in p 


B° 


P H-> 


o -• 


r" ci 


ber. (Gil 
Westport 
ssession o 


CD o 
o_ • 

fD 4- 
S-O 

►C P 
O 3^ 


M > cr 


p£ CD 




CD O 


r*~ ra 


d b SP 




►7 C3 3 




S.&B. 


^ — 


> c-t- 


3 Oi 


fD O 3" 


o 


's pate 
f these 
rsity C 


5 ~ 

<-► o 
n Y' 




2 




n* P ~^ 


= ~ 




CD x 


Q - h- ' 


CS T> 


Ws-oc 


~. — 


5 CD C5 


£ _ 


35 "o 
■"7 * 


= •< 


£_ . 



a. s 2 * 



MB 



CD DC 



B 2 





Plate X. 

Confederate twelve-pounder howitzer shell, plowed up on west 
bank of the Big Blue River at the Byram's Ford crossing. Fired 
from artillery placed at the second position of Price's rear-guard 
under Marmaduke. 

Button from Federal soldier's uniform. Found at point where 
the final charge of Phillips' (Brown's), Sanborn's, and Winslow's 
brigades carried the second position of Price's rear-guard under 
Marmaduke. 

Bullets plowed up on the field of the final charge of the three 
above-named brigades. Identified as follows, from left to right: 

[over] 



1. Confederate shot-gun ball. 

2. Colt's .36-caliber revolver bullet. 

3. Bullet from Burnside's breech-loading carbine, .56 caliber. 

4. Solid-base rifle bullet. 

5. Hollow-base musket bullet. 

6. Bullet from Smith's breech-loading carbine, .52 caliber. 
This carbine was issued to the Seventh Missouri State Militia Cav- 
alry. 

7. Metallic cartridge, from Henry repeating rifle. .44 caliber, 
center-fire. Missed fire, cap bearing impression of firing-pin. 



The: Battle of Westport. 137 

The position of this stand of the Confederate rear- 
guard under Marmaduke was on the line of the north- 
and-south road, to-day known as Ehnwood Avenue, a 
Httle less than a half mile east of Cleveland Avenue and 
the Swope Park trolley line, and about 1,500 feet north 
of the north line of Swope Park. It was at this point that 
the bullets and button shown in Plate X. were found, and 
similar relics of the fight are still to be found in large 
numbers for a distance of 600 yards (the bullet-range of 
that day) east and west of this site. 

Marmaduke's last desperate stand thus broken, he 
had no alternative save to retreat in the direction of the 
main body of Price's army, now falling back before the 
Kansans' artillery, their mounted charges, and the 
swarms of shouting militia in front of West port. Once 
started, Phillips and Benteen drove the retreating Con- 
federates with every man of their commands, mounting 
them as soon as the position was taken and continuing 
the pursuit at full speed, hurrying Thurber's guns for- 
ward and stopping them on one ridge after another to 
send shell and canister after the enemy's hurrying retreat. 
The sound of these approaching guns soon reached the 
ears of the Kansas troops engaged with Shelby's and 
Fagan's brigades, and as the reports grew louder and 
nearer, tremendous cheers rose from the Kansans as they 
realized its significance and that Pleasanton's long pur- 
suit from St. Louis had arrived on the field at the critical 
moment. General Curtis says that it was just noon when 
he heard the sound of Pleasanton's guns above the roar 
of the fighting in his own vicinity, and he felt so sure of 
what it augured for the Federal arms that he immediately 



138 The Battle; of Westport. 

despatched a messenger to Kansas City to notify Colonel 
Coates that there would be no need for him and his Home 
Guards, and asking him to telegraph to Rosecrans at St. 
Louis that the day was as good as won. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE BATTLE OF WESTPORT. — FROM NOON 
TO 2 O'CLOCK. 

GENERAL CURTIS was right. The brigades of 
Phillips, Benteen and Sanborn drove the Con- 
federates under Marmaduke westward until the 
two battle-fields were pratically one, extending 
from before Westport on the northwest to a point a mile 
east of Troost Avenue on the east, upon which vast field 
the entire Federal and Confederate forces now faced and 
fought one another. The advance of Phillips', Sanborn's 
and Benteen's cavalry columns upon the field, driving 
Marmaduke's division before them, made their attack 
practically a flanking one, and Price's line of battle was 
crushed together with Federal assaults on the north and 
east at the same time. With the presence of Pleasanton's 
forces on the field, Price's men rapidly fell back south- 
ward, when Price and his officers rode along the lines beg- 
ging the men to make one more stand, which they did. 
This was at almost exactly i o'clock, and this second 
stand of Price's army was on an east-and-west line from 
the present Forest Hill Cemetery to the Wornall Road. 
Even in the heat of battle the officers and men were fas- 
cinated by the martial beauty of the spectacle that was 
presented by the vast extent of the firing lines that were 
now entirely in the open and perfectly visible under the 
brilliant and unclouded October noon. Great clouds of 

139 



140 The Battle oe Westport. 

smoke rose from the entire field, from batteries and reg- 
imental volleys, and the din of the furious cannonade was 
plainly heard by the citizens miles away in Kansas City, 
where most of the non-combatant population was on 
house-tops or hill-tops to listen and to watch the smoke 
rising from the distant field. At this hour of the battle, 
from 1 2 130 to 1 130, nearly thirty thousand men were en- 
gaged on a field between three and four miles square, ex- 
tending from the State Line before Westport to about the 
southeast corner of Forest Hill Cemetery, or where the 
monument to the Confederate dead stands to-day above 
the last resting-place of Brigadier-General Shelby and 
many of his men. 

Not a few deeds of marksmanship and daring char- 
acterized the fighting at this time, that of Price's last 
stand, and have passed into history. Confederate sharp- 
shooters again climbed the occasional trees that dotted 
the prairie and from these points of vantage used their 
rifles in picking off the Federal officers and men. On the 
Federal side some very accurate work was done with 
cannon in the attempt to disable the enemy's artillery. 
Two shots in particular were so notable as to have passed 
into the official reports of the battle. One was from a 
gun of a most interesting artillery force belonging to 
Curtis' army and variously named in the official reports. 
Manned by negroes recruited in Leavenworth under 
Major R. H. Hunt, the attention of Stanton, the Secretary 
of War, had been drawn to its existence, and he had per- 
sonally issued commissions to three negro officers of its 
force. One was a Captain Douglas, of Muscatine, Iowa, 
a man of remarkable natural eloquence and great power 




Plate XI. 

Front and rear views of the monument erected on the battle- 
field by the Kansas City Chapter, United Daughters of the Con 
federacy, in honor of the Confederate dead in the Battle of West- 
port. The monument stands at the east end of the Confederate 
line of Price's last stand, the statue of the Confederate soldier 
facing toward the Federal pursuit. On the slope before the/monu- 
ment may be seen the low head-stones marking the graves where 
have been gathered all the Confederate dead. The largest of ithese 
head-stones, visible in the rear-view just at the left of the base of 
the monument, marks the grave of Brigadier-General Shelby, 
buried here on his death in 1897. 



The; Battle oe Westport. 143 

over his people. A second was Lieutenant Miner, a 
highly-educated colored man who had been private sec- 
retary to Colonel George C. Hoyt, the lawyer from Athol. 
Maine, who had defended John Brown in his famous trial. 
The third was of an opposite type, First Lieutenant ' ' Bill " 
Matthews, a giant and coal-black negro, a Hercules in 
strength, unlettered, but devoted to his service. The 
battery consisted of six rifled field-pieces and was at- 
tached to Colonel C. W. Blair's brigade during the battle. 
Its official title was the Second United States Colored 
Battery Light Artillery, and several of its men were killed 
before Westport, while the excellent work it did is men- 
tioned in many Federal reports. The particular shot was 
aimed by a white officer, Captain J. H. Dodge, command- 
ing the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Battery, but who 
used this gun of the negro battery at this moment, the 
shell shattering the carriage of a Confederate howitzer 
and dropping the piece disabled to the ground. The other 
shot was aimed by Major R. H. Hunt, more than once 
mentioned herein as Chief of the Kansas Artillery, with a 
gun of Lieutenant Eayre's section of the Ninth Wisconsin 
Battery, and the solid shot struck one of the heavy guns 
of Captain R. A. Collins' Missouri Battery, with Shelby's 
division, shattering the piece to the trunnions. The re- 
markable effect of the shot was due to the fact that the 
gun was being loaded at the moment it was struck, and 
the charge that was being inserted exploded, bursting 
the gun and killing and wounding several men and 
horses in its vicinity. It was later examined by Federal 
officers and found to be an imitation-Parrott, cast in a 
Confederate foundry in Texas. At the time when these 



144 The Battle of Westport. 

shots were fired the Federal batteries were standing in 
a position near the present Wornall Road, some distance 
south and east of the present Country Club, and the 
disabled Confederate pieces were some six or eight hun- 
dred yards farther southeast. 

Another unique feature of the entire engagement was 
the diversity of arms used, on the Confederate side, at 
least. These comprised excellent Enfield rifled muskets 
imported from England through Mexico, sabers and other 
swords, many of them the product of rustic blacksmith 
shops ; single and double-barreled shot-guns, not a few of 
them antiquated flint-locks; and cannon that ranged 
from the Parrotts, Rodmans, Napoleons and howitzers 
down to a most original piece in the possession of one of 
Price's forces, some six feet long, but only an inch in bore, 
but praised by one of its gray-clad devotees as "inval- 
uable for picking off individuals at long range." It is 
also reported, on apparently credible authority, that some 
of the guns of Collins' battery, General Jeff Thompson's 
brigade, were breech-loaders, after a pattern invented by 
a D. W. Hughes of Memphis, Tennessee, later of Yates 
Center, Kansas, to whom a patent was awarded by the 
Confederate Government in 1863. These were of various 
sizes, some cast in bronze and some bored out of old 
car-axles, generally of but an inch to two inches in bore, 
mounted on light carriages and often moved by men alone 
after the fashion of naval howitzers. They fired a single 
leaden ball, and a range of three miles was claimed for 
the best of them. The difference in the arms used in the 
ranks was so marked even during the progress of the 
battle that more than one Federal officer reports having 



P P • 


< 


- 












ai(ra 








p 3 ,_: 


i- 




X 


he large 
by A. T 
s an aide 


re 





P 

3 

en 










SLo 


~. 


re 


O 






re 


_ 


re re 




EC 




-J -! 




- 




- £ 




- 


(~) 


V. T+ 




r- 


- 










S- s 




_ 


IT 


re re 












— 


«H 



o S ►— 



o re 


C 


E^t 


o £f 






q re 






- GO 


^ X H 


3 If 


• re a 


^3 


re > 


5? 


re 3 - ^ 
re -7- >— 


p -u 


7? p • 


E.2 
g.8" 


O i 


1 o 


2 2 


i p 




O-: 


a 


2 cr 


r-i 


~ re 


■ £ 


re i-s 




P O 


3=f£ 


— 'O 


re 


2- oT 


!s 


^ - 


ELff 








-1 t - * 


Xp 


•■^ p 


M 


Q 


jSfC 


P P 


8 S 

3 p- 




5*5 


P'i- 


c o 


<^o 


TfZ. 


re 7q 


*° *_ 


p J3* 


£.2 


"i re 


s* c 


- P 


P e* 


o Si 


s-*d 

re i 


-*. p 


O-re" 


£.6 




The: Battle of 5 Westport. 147 

noted by the unmistakable roar of shot-gun volleys that 
the troops engaged were either raw recruits or irregular 
soldiery, and not musket-armed regulars. One Confed- 
erate officer reports that his men were compelled to dis- 
mount whenever they wished to fire, as their guns were 
so long as to be unusable from the saddle, being evidently 
the old-fashioned but once-famous arm known as the 
"Kentucky pea-rifle." 

But this last and desperate stand of Price's men — 
though it shook the impetuous onset of Sanborn's brigade 
for a moment, and though it quite gave wings to a reg- 
iment of Kansans upon whom Shelby's fierce troopers sud- 
denly whirled about — could yet avail nothing against the 
now combined armies of Curtis and Pleasanton, and the 
union of these lines rang out in their united volleys the 
death-knell of Price's last great "raid." As the Confed- 
erate Brigadier-General M. Jeff Thompson later wrote, 
"then for the first time in this campaign Shelby's brigade 
turned its backs toward the foe." Thurber's battery, 
with the brigades of Phillips and Benteen, did as much 
toward forcing the flight as any of the Federal artillery, 
being galloped into short range and firing on the re- 
retreating Confederates with double-shotted canister. 
With the first break of this last stand the great rout began. 
Price says that he ordered the retreat when the news 
reached him that his wagon-train was being threatened 
by a Federal brigade (McNeil's), though, as we have seen, 
this threat came to nothing. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE RETREAT AND THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

OFF to the southward moved the pursued and the 
pursuers. The sound of the heavy firing grew 
fainter and fainter to the anxious listeners in 
the little Kansas City of that fateful day, and 
the Battle of Westport was over. Toward the close of 
the afternoon Curtis halted the rawest of his Kansans and 
sent them back to Kansas City, there to be mustered out 
and returned to their homes, and by an order dated, "In 
the field, on Indian Creek," revoked his declaration of 
martial law in the State of Kansas. The Fifth, Sixth and 
Tenth Kansas regiments were allowed to continue the 
pursuit in company with Pleasantan's veterans as far as 
Fort Scott, where they too were halted and mustered 
out of service. 

With these exceptions the two united Federal armies 
continued the chase all that night and the next day, ad- 
vancing directly southward as fast as the jaded horses of 
pursued and pursuers made possible, along the State 
Line between Missouri and Kansas, now on one side of the 
line and now on the other. That night (the 24th) the 
pursuit halted at Mound City, the then little county-seat 
of Linn County, Kansas, the rear-guard of the Confed- 
erates occupying the two mounds at a little distance from 
the settlement, from which it takes its name. In the 
middle of the night, at Curtis' orders, the Second Col- 

148 



The Battle of Westport. 149 

orado Cavalry and the (detachment of the) Eighth Mis- 
souri State Militia Cavalry, under Major R. H. Hunt 
and Colonel J. J. Gravely, moved, in pitch darkness and 
a pouring storm, to take the mounds. Just before day- 
break the Confederates abandoned the mounds after a 
brief exchange of fire, and the pursuit across the prairies 
began anew. 

Five miles southeast of Mound City, in the timber on 
the north bank of Mine Creek and not far from its junction 
with the Little Osage, Price's men halted for the last 
stand of their entire campaign. Shelby's division had 
been sent to protect the great wagon-train, but the di- 
visions of Fagan and Marmaduke were drawn up in line 
of battle, six lines deep, ten pieces of artillery placed on 
their left wing. Phillips' and Benteen's brigades charged 
directly against the center and left of the enemy's posi- 
tion, hoping to cut off and capture the guns, in which 
they were eventually successful, though not till they had 
experienced severe losses from shell and musketry. The 
regular formation of the battle-lines gave way to the 
utmost confusion, in which friends and foes were hardly 
distinguishable, and one Federal line even charged an- 
other. Officers, fancying themselves leading their men, 
found themselves the prisoners of those about them; 
soldiers, their muskets at their shoulders to fire, lowered 
them to take another look and determine whether the 
objects of their aim were for them or against them. 
Major Abial R. Pierce, commanding the Fourth Iowa 
Cavalry of Winslow's (Benteen's) brigade, is reported to 
have cut down eight Confederates with his own saber and 
he look two flags with his own hands. Colonel Slemons, 



150 The Batti,e of Westport. 

commanding Slemon's brigade, who had been with Price 
since the day of Corinth, and who had held the rear-guard 
on the mounds at Mound City, was mortally wounded. 
Major-General Marmaduke, while striving to rally his 
men, was attacked by a Federal corporal, already se- 
verely wounded, James Dunlavy of Company D, Fourth 
Iowa Cavalry. Dunlavy was firing at Marmaduke with 
his revolver, when the officer, taking him for a Confed- 
erate, rode up to him to reprove him for firing at one of 
his own side. Dunlavy waited till Marmaduke was 
within short range, leveled his pistol and forced him to 
dismount and surrender, when Marmaduke's horse im- 
mediately ran away, and the corporal turned his captive 
over to Colonel Blair, commanding the Fourth Brigade 
under Curtis. Blair presented Dunlavy with Marma- 
duke's revolver as a trophy of his feat. At almost the 
same time Brigadier-General W. L. Cabell was captured. 
Like his fellow-officers, he had been trying desperately to 
rally his broken lines, the flag-bearer of Colonel Anderson 
Gordon's Arkansas cavalry regiment riding with him and 
defiantly waving the regimental flag. In jumping Mine 
Creek, Cabell's horse fell, when a white-haired lieutenant 
and three men of the Seventh Missouri Cavalry (Phillips' 
regiment, now under Lieutenant -Colonel T. T. Crittenden) 
demanded his surrender. The General gave up his pis- 
tols and the sword he was carrying (his own having been 
lost at Independence, as we have seen), when the lieu- 
tenant proposed to kill his captive on the spot to prevent 
his getting away. In the surrounding confusion General 
Cabell got away, seizing a little Choctaw pony which a 
Confederate private was riding, and finding Colonel Gor- 



MAn Nn R Showing Position of Forces at 1:30 p. m. and after, October 23d. 







5CME , ONE-TMIRO INCH ONt Mil* 



M^/eSaniafi 



Fac-simile of map made in 1864 by lieutenant Geo. T. Robinson, to accompany Major-General S. R. Curtis' 
official report to the United States War Department on the Battle of Westport. 

A, A — Old Independence Road. B — Fifteenth Street crossing of the Big Blue River. C, C — Old line 
of the Santa Fe Trail. D, D — Old Westport Road. E — Country Club grounds. F — Forest Hill Cemetery. 
G — Swope Park. H — Price's army, Pagan's division. I — Price's army, Marmadulce's division. J — 
Price's army, Shelby's division. K — Curtis' army, Jennison's brigade, t, — Curtis' army, Moonlight's 
brigade. M — Curtis' army, Blair's brigade. N — Curtis' army, Ford's brigade. O — Curtis' army, troops 
under Deitzler. P — Pleasanton's army, Brown's (Phillips') brigade. Q — Pleasanton's army, McNeil's 
brigade. R — Pleasanton's army, Sanborn's brigade. S — Pleasanton's army, Winslow'8 brigade. T, T — 
Fortifications before Kansas City. U — Wagon-train with Price's army. 



Ths Battle of Westport. 153 

don the two strove again to form a resistance. While 
thus engaged they ran into the Third Iowa Cavalry, a 
volley from whom shot Cabell's horse in several places, 
and he was again dismounted. Sergeant Cavalry N. 
Young, of the Third Iowa, seized him and protected him 
from several Federal soldiers who would have shot him 
on the ground that he had once been captured and had 
escaped. The sergeant took his prisoner to General 
Pleasanton himself, by whom his surrender was received. 
Both these Federal officers later received medals of honor 
at the recommendation of Lieut enant-Colonel F. W. Ben- 
teen. Several other Confederate officers, over eight hun- 
dred of their men and nine guns were captured at Mine 
Creek. Price himself narrowly escaped capture, having 
been but a few feet from Cabell when he was seized, and 
escaping only by the fleetness of his horse. General 
Price ordinarily travelled with his army in a carriage, but 
at the beginning of this action, seeing that it bade fair 
to be exceedingly close, he betook himself to a horse, and 
to this fact owed his escape. It was indeed the end of his 
campaign — of his army itself. That night his wagon- 
train was burned to keep it from capture and his reserve 
ammunition exploded for the same purpose. His Ad- 
jutant-General wrote: "Everything is now a mass of 
confusion," and "the morale of the army is ruined." 
The last campaign of Sterling Price, the greatest move of 
the Confederacy in the West, was over. 

In the following spring, on April 25th, 1865, there was 
called at General E. Kirby Smith's instruction a "Con- 
federate Court of Inquiry," for which Price himself had 
asked, that it might "vindicate his honor" in regard to 



154 The Battle of Westport. 

his conduct of his invasion that had ended so disas- 
trously for the Confederate arms. The court convened 
at Shreveport, Louisiana, with Major O. M. Wat kins, 
C.S.A., as Judge-Advocate, and remained in session till 
May 3d, when it adjourned to meet again at Washington, 
Arkansas, at the call of General Smith, but the war 
coming soon to a close such a call was never issued and 
it never met again. 

The numbers engaged in the Battle of West port have 
often been grossly misstated, even when such statements 
have been based on the reports of the time, chiefly be- 
cause each side firmly believed and affirmed the other 
enormously to outnumber it. As we have seen, Price 
himself was told by one of his own spies that he was pur- 
sued by 39,000 men, while he writes that he understood 
that Blunt alone of Curtis' force had 8,000 men under 
him. On the Federal side General Rosecrans gives 
15,000 as his lowest estimate of the numbers of Price's 
cavalry, with 26,000 as the largest number reported to 
him. 

The truth was that Price had close to 9,000 armed 
men with him at the time of the Battle of West port. 
Opposed to him were somewhere near 15,000 under Gen- 
eral Curtis (Curtis' own statement, dated two days before 
Westport), and 6,500 more under Pleasanton, although 
1,500 of these were not actually in the battle, being sent 
on the fruitless move against Price's wagon-train. There 
were thus almost exactly 20,000 Federal and 9,000 Con- 
federates engaged in the battle of the 23d. 

The casualties of the day — and of the two previous 
days of fighting at the Little Blue, Independence and the 



o p. 

go >— 
m ►-!■ 



S2. CO 
§ ° B 
O JP 

2 2. o 

GO M 
2^ P 

P 2 -s 
. co o 
Tjh-.P 
P P 3 

CD 



y, 



P rs 



p p c 
SS 2 ro 

g B a- 

•- 2.P- 

W JQ CO 

w cyso 



o 



O 



p o 

SO P 

p » 

aq -• 

p p 



2.P - 

go p 

P. H 



CP5 p 

5'p 
£ co 

t— - p 

GO 



f 









I 







5s 




The Battle; of Westport. 157 

Big Blue — were equally exaggerated then and since, the 
fierceness of the fire and the newness of battle-experiences 
to many of the contestants leading them to imagine 
losses greater than actually occurred. Comparing the 
statements of witnesses, participants, officers, newspaper- 
reporters and hospital-physicians, we conclude that a 
total of 1,000 casualties — dead and severely wounded — 
is as near a correct estimate of the losses on both sides 
as is possible. 

The wounded were ministered to in at least four 
places. Some were cared for on the field and in and 
about the old Wornall Home, which was converted into 
a temporary hospital by the Federals under Curtis. A 
few were carried to Shawneetown in an ambulance at- 
tached to the Second Colorado and driven by a 16-year- 
old boy, now Mr. C. W. Whitney of Kansas City. Many 
others were brought to Kansas City, the Confederates 
being placed in the Southern Methodist Church that then 
stood on the south side of Fifth Street, between Delaware 
and Wyandotte streets. The Federal wounded were 
cared for in the Lockridge Hall, then standing at the 
southeast corner of Fifth and Main Streets, and con- 
verted into a hospital under charge of Surgeon Philip 
Harvey of the United States Volunteers. 

Of the dead, many were buried on the field, some (it 
is said) in the old cemetery on the State Line Road near 
the Ward Farm, others in the burying-ground of which 
until recently traces were visible at Troost Avenue and 
Fifty-first Street, and sixty-eight unidentified Confed- 
erates being buried at one place. Other Confederates 
were buried on the W. B. Clark Farm south of Forest Hill 



1 58 The Battle of Westport. 

Cemetery. The remains of as many as could be traced 
were in late years placed in the beautiful lot owned by 
the Daughters of the Confederacy in Forest Hill Cem- 
etery, above which rises the shaft that commemorates 
their devotion to their cause. On General Shelby's death 
in 1897 he was buried here among his men. 

With the Battle of West port, Price and his men of the 
Confederate "Army of the Trans-Mississippi" passed out 
of history, and never again to the end of the great con- 
flict was Missouri seriously in danger. They should for- 
ever form a sacred ground, those fair farm acres where 
was fought the battle that saved the West for the 
Union — the western Gettysburg. 



APPENDIX. 

i. Price's Army, "The Army of the Trans-Mississippi." 

2. Curtis' Army, "The Army of the Border." 

3. Pleasanton's Army, "The Army of the Department 

of the Missouri." 

4. Comparison of Numbers Engaged in the Battle of 

Westport and in other Battles of the Civil War 
west of the Mississippi. 

5. The "Reynolds' Manuscript" on Sterling Price and 

the Confederacy. 



159 



ORGANIZATION OF PRICE'S ARMY. 



"The Army of the Trans-Mississippi." Major-General 
Sterling Price, C.S.A., commanding. L. A. Maclean, 
Adjutant-General. 

fagan's division. 
Major-General James F. Fagan. 

Cabell's Brigade. — Brigadier-General Win. L. Cabell. 
Lieutenant-Colonel A. V. Reiff . 

Monroe's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel James C. Mon- 
roe. 

Gordon's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel Anderson Gor- 
don. 

Morgan's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel Thomas J. Mor- 
gan. 

Hill's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel John F. Hill. 

Gunter's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Thos. M. Gunter. 

Harrell's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion. Lieutenant- 
Colonel John M. Harrell. 

Witherspoon's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion. Major 
J. L- Witherspoon. 

Hughey's Arkansas Battery. Captain W. M. Hughey. 

Slemon's Brigade. — Colonel W. F. Slemons. Colonel 
Wm. A. Crawford. 

Second Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel W. F. Slemons. 

161 



162 The Battle oe Wsstport. 

Crawford's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel Win, A. Craw- 
ford. 

Carlton's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel Chas. H. Carl- 
ton. 

Wright's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel John C. Wright. 

Dobbin's Brigade. — Colonel Archibald S. Dobbin. 

Dobbin's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel Archibald S. 
Dobbin. 

McGhee's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel James H. 
McGhee. 

Witt's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel A. R. Witt. 

Blocher's Arkansas Battery, i section. Lieutenant J. 
V. Zimmerman. 

McCray's Brigade. — Colonel Thomas H. McCray. 

Forty-fifth Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel Oliver P. 
Lyles. 

Forty-seventh Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel Dee Cran- 
dall. 

Fifteenth Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Timothy Reves. 

Unattached. — Rogan's Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel 
Jas. W. Rogan. 

Anderson's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion. Captain 
Wm. L.f Anderson. 



The Batti,e of Wsstport. 163 

marmaduke' s division. 
Major-General John S. Marmaduke. 
Brigadier-General John B. Clark, Jr. 

Escort : 

Company D, Fifth Missouri Cavalry. Captain D. R. 

Stallard. 

Marmaduke' s Brigade. — Brigadier-General John B. 
Clark, Jr. Colonel Colton Greene. 

Third Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Colton Greene. 

Fourth Missouri Cavalry. Colonel John Q. Burbridge. 

Seventh Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Solomon G. 
Kitchen. 

Davies' Battalion Missouri Cavalry. Lieutenant- 
Colonel J. F. Davies. 

Eighth Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Wm. L. Jeffers. 

Tenth Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Robert R. Lawther. 

Fourteenth Missouri Cavalry Battalion. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Robert C. Wood. 

Hynson's Texas Battery. Captain H. C. Hynson. 

Harris' Missouri Battery. Captain S. S. Harris. 

Engineer Company. Captain Jas. T. Hogane. 

Freeman's Brigade. — Colonel Thomas R. Freeman. 

Freeman's Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Thomas R. 
Freeman. 

Fristoe's Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Edward T. Fris- 
toe. 

Ford's Arkansas Cavalry " Battalion. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Barney Ford. 



1 64 The; Battle oe Westport. 

Shelby's division. 
Brigadier-General Joseph O. Shelby. 

Shelby's Brigade. — Colonel David Shanks. Colonel 
Moses W. Smith. Brigadier-General M. Jeff Thompson. 

Fifth Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Frank B. Gordon. 

Eleventh Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Moses W. Smith. 

Sixth Missouri Cavalry. Colonel* David Shanks. 
(This regiment sometimes incorrectly given as the 
Twelfth.) 

Elliott's Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Benjamin El- 
liott. 

Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Battalion. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Alonzo W. Slayback. 

Collins' Missouri Battery. Captain Richard A. Col- 
lins. 

Jackman's Brigade. — Colonel Sidney D. Jackman. 

Jackman's Missouri Cavalry. Lieutenant-Colonel C. 
H. Nichols. 

Hunter's Missouri Cavalry. Colonel DeWitt C. Hun- 
ter. 

Williams' Missouri Cavalry Battalion. Lieutenant- 
Colonel D. A. Williams. 

Schnable's Missouri Cavalry Battalion. Lieutenant- 
Colonel John A. Schnable. 

Collins' Missouri Battery, i section. Lieutenant Ja- 
cob D. Connor. 

Tyler's Brigade. — Colonel Charles H. Tyler. 

Perkins' Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Caleb Perkins. 

Coffee's Missouri Cavalry. Colonel Jacob T. Coffee. 



The Battle oe Westport. 165 

Searcey's Missouri Cavalry. Colonel James T. Sear- 
cey. 

Unattached. — Forty-sixth Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel 
W. O. Coleman. 

(Note. — -The majority of the above regiments were at 
most but skeleton organizations, many consisting of mere 
handfuls of men. Of the 50 regiments, etc., reported, the 
total number never exceeded 10,000 men under arms. 

Some accounts mention a fourth division, "Cabell's 
Division." It was Price's intention to form such a di- 
vision when the hoped-for recruits from Confederate- 
sympathizing societies in Missouri and Illinois should 
have become sufficiently numerous to compose such a 
separate force, but such never became the case, and the 
"division" was never actually formed. Certain captured 
Confederates stated the opposite of this, however, which 
information was duly reported. Hence the error.) 



ORGANIZATION OF CURTIS' ARMY. 



"The Army of the Border." Major-General Samuel 
R. Curtis, U.S.A., Department of Kansas, commanding. 

Escort: Company G, Eleventh Kansas Volunteer 
Cavalry, and two mountain howitzers, under Lieutenant 
Edward Gill. 

FIRST DIVISION. 

Major-General James G. Blunt, U.S A., commanding. 

Major-General George W. Deitzler, Adjutant-General 
Kansas State Militia, in charge of the militia in the field. 

Major-General Chapman S. Chariot, Assistant Adju- 
tant-General Kansas State Militia. 

Major Robert H. Hunt, Chief of Kansas State Ar- 
tillery. 

First Brigade. — Colonel Charles R. Jennison, Fifteenth 
Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. 

Fifteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. Lieutenant - 
Colonel Geo. H. Hoyt. 

Detachment Third Wisconsin Cavalry. Captain Rob- 
ert Carpenter. 

Battery of five twelve-pounder mountain howitzers. 
Second Lieutenant H. L. Barker. 

Second Brigade. — Colonel Thomas Moonlight, Eleventh 
Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. 

Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Preston B. Plumb. 

166 



The; Battle of Wsstport. 167 

Detachment (Companies L and M) Fifth Kansas Vol- 
unteer Cavalry. Captain Jas. H. Young. 

Detachment (Companies A and D) Sixteenth Kansas 
Volunteer Cavalry. Lieutenant-Colonel Sam'l Walker. 

Battery of four twelve-pounder mountain howitzers, 
manned by Company B, Eleventh Kansas Volunteer 
Cavalry. 

Third Brigade. — Colonel Chas. W. Blair, Fourteenth 
Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. 

Fifth Kansas State Militia. Colonel G. A. Colton. 

Sixth Kansas State Militia. Colonel Jas. Montgom- 
ery (succeeding Colonel J. S. Snoddy.) 

Tenth Kansas State Militia. Colonel Wm. Pennock. 

Wilson's Independent Scouts. Captain John Wilson. 

Two-gun Battery Second Kansas State Artillery. 
Lieutenant D. C. Knowles. 

Independent Battery Colorado Volunteers. Six rifled 
field-pieces. Captain W. D. McLain. 

Fourth Kansas State Militia. Colonel W. D. McCain. 
(Added on 21st inst.) 

Nineteenth Kansas State Militia. Colonel A. C. Ho- 
gan. (Added on 21st inst.) 

Company E, Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry. Lieuten- 
ant W. B. Clark. 

Ninth Wisconsin Battery. Captain James H. Dodge. 

Fourth Brigade. — Colonel James H. Ford, Second Col- 
orado Cavalry. (This brigade created on 20th inst. by 
Major-General Curtis at Major-General Blunt's request.) 

Second Colorado Cavalry. Major J. H. Pritchard 
(succeeding Major J. N. Smith, killed at Little Blue.) 



168 The Battle of Westport. 

Detachment Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry. Major James 
Ketner. 

Independent Battery Colorado Volunteers. (See 
Third Brigade. With Fourth Brigade after 20th inst.) 

Other regiments or detachments of regiments of Kan- 
sas State Militia, all infantry, unattached or reaching the 
vicinity of Kansas City too late for formal assignment to 
brigades, etc., and therefore serving generally under or- 
ders from Major-General George W. Deitzler, Adjutant- 
General Kansas State Militia. No regiment mentioned 
here save as its name is given in some official report as 
having some connection, however remote, with the bat- 
tles of either Little Blue, Big Blue, or Westport. 

Second Kansas State Militia. Colonel George W. 
Veale. 

Detachment Seventh Kansas State Militia. Colonel 
Peter McFarland. 

Ninth Kansas State Militia. Colonel Frank M. Tracy. 

Twelfth Kansas State Militia. Colonel L. S. Treat. 

Thirteenth Kansas State Militia. Colonel Alexander 
S. Johnson. 

Fourteenth Kansas State Militia. Colonel Wm. Gor- 
don. 

Eighteenth Kansas State Militia. Colonel Matthew 

Quigg- 

Twentieth Kansas State Militia. Colonel J. B. 

Hubble. 

Twenty-first Kansas State Militia. Colonel Sandy 
Lowe. 

Second Kansas Colored State Militia. Captain R. J. 
Hinton. 



The Battle oe Westport. 169 

Unattached. — Kansas City Home Guards. Colonel 
Kersey Coates. 

(Note. — Many officers of regiments other than given 
above, happening to be in the vicinity of Kansas City, at 
Fort Leavenworth, at Fort Riley, in Kansas, etc., on 
duty, on leave, or on furlough, served temporarily in 
various capacities with the Army of the Border.) 



ORGANIZATION OF PLEASANTON 'S ARMY. 



"The Army of the Department of the Missouri." 
Major-General Alfred S. Pleasanton, U.S.A., Provisional 
Cavalry Division, commanding. Colonel J. V. DuBois, 
Chief of Staff. 

First Brigade. — Colonel J. P. Phillips. (Succeeding 
Brigadier-General E. B. Brown, arrested, on 23d inst.) 

First Missouri State Militia Cavalry. Lieutenant- 
Colonel B. F. Lazear. (Succeeding Colonel Jas. McFer- 
ran, relieved by order of Pleasanton on 23d inst.) 

Fourth Missouri State Militia Cavalry. Major George 
W. Kelley. 

Seventh Missouri State Militia Cavalry. Lieutenant- 
Colonel T. T. Crittenden. (Succeeding Colonel John F. 
Phillips, placed in command of brigade on 23d inst.) 

First Iowa Cavalry. Major John McDermott. 

Second Brigade. — Brigadier-General John McNeil. 

Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Colonel J. L. 
Beveridge. 

Thirteenth Missouri Cavalry Veteran Volunteers. 
Colonel E. C. Catherwood. 

Fifth Missouri State Militia Cavalry. Lieutenant- 
Colonel J. A. Eppstein. 

Detachment Ninth Missouri State Militia Cavalry. 
Lieutenant-Colonel D. M. Draper. 

Detachment Third Missouri State Militia Cavalry. 
Lieutenant-Colonel H. M. Matthews. 

170 



The Battle oe Westport. 171 

Detachment Second Missouri Volunteer Cavalry 
("Merrill's Horse")- Captain G. M. Houston. 

Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. Major F. M. 
Malone. 

Battery of four twelve-pounder mountain howitzers. 
Lieutenant A. Hillerich. 

Battery B. Second Missouri Light Artillery (twelve- 
pounder Napoleons). Captain J. J. Sutter. 

Third Brigade. — Brigadier-General John B. Sanborn 

Detachment Sixth Missouri State Militia Cavalry 
Major fm. Plumb. 

Detachment Eighth Missouri State Militia Cavalry 
Colonel J.J. Gravely. 

Detachment Sixth Provisional Enrolled Missouri 
Militia Cavalry. Lieutenant-Colonel Jno. F. McMahan. 

Detachment Seventh Provisional Enrolled Missouri 
Militia Cavalry. Major W. B. Mitchell. 

Second Arkansas Cavalry. Colonel John E. Phelps. 

Batteries H and L, Second Missouri Light Artillery. 
Six three-inch Rodman guns. (Battery H, Captain C. H. 
Thurber, with the First Brigade at Big Blue. Battery L, 
Captain W. C. F. Montgomery, with the Second Brigade 
near Hickman's MilL.) 

Fourth Brigade. — Colonel E. F. Winslow, Fourth Iowa 
Cavalry. (Wounded at the Big Blue, October 23d, and 
succeeded by) Lieutenant-Colonel F. W. Benteen. 

Fourth Iowa Cavalry. Major Abial R. Pierce. 

Third Iowa Cavalry. Major Benjamin S. Jones. 

Tenth Missouri Cavalry. Lieutenant-Colonel F. W. 
Benteen. (On taking command of brigade was succeeded 
by) Major W. H. Lusk. 



172 The Battle oe Westport. 

(Note. — Only such regiments, etc., are given here as 
had some connection, however remote, with the actions of 
either Little Blue, Big Blue, or West port. Several other 
regiments, detachments, and bodies of troops went a short 
distance from St. Louis, Jefferson City, and other points, 
under Pleasanton's command and nominally in pursuit of 
Price, but were ordered back or elsewhere as it was seen 
that they would not be needed. All such are omitted 
here, as Pleasanton himself omits mention of them in his 
reports on these battles. 

More of the above regiments than are so stated were 
only detachments of their respective forces, particularly 
in the Fourth Brigade. 

The above is the theoretical organization of the 
Army and was considerably altered — regiments, com- 
panies, detachments, etc., being shifted as necessary — 
during the actual pursuit of and engagements with 
Price's forces.) 



COMPARISON OF NUMBERS ENGAGED IN THE 

BATTLE OF WESTPORT AND IN OTHER LAND 

BATTLES OF THE CIVIL WAR WEST OF 

THE MISSISSIPPI. 



The statement, more than once made in the preceding 
pages, that the Battle of Westport was the largest battle 
in point of numbers engaged that was fought west of the 
Mississippi River during the Civil War, having been fre- 
quently disputed, there follows below the official figures 
of the numbers engaged on both sides in every engagement 
of importance in the territory mentioned. 

The battle of Arkansas Post and Fort Hindman, Ar- 
kansas, January ioth and nth, 1863, had more troops 
engaged than had the Battle of Westport, but it does 
not enter into the present consideration, having been 
partly a naval battle, Porter's fleet of three iron-clads and 
six gun-boats being used to reduce the Confederate force. 

The battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas (see below), 
has sometimes been alleged as having had more troops 
engaged than at Westport, the statement having received 
credence that there were 32,000 Confederate troops en- 
gaged. The report to that effect has been traced by the 
writer to the fact that the Federals captured a Confed- 
erate officer's account -book, in which it was recorded that 
rations for 32,000 men were issued. Those figures are, 
however, untenable in view of the fact that the figures 
given below were supplied by Major-General T. C. Hind- 

173 



174 



Ths Battle of Wsstport. 



man, C.S.A., and have been accepted both by the Gov- 
ernment's Official Records of the Civil War and the Cen- 
tury Company's "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," 
Vol. 3, page 441 et seq. 

TROOPS ENGAGED IN PRINCIPAL LAND BATTLES FOUGHT WEST OP THE 
MISSISSIPPI RIVER DURING THE CIVIL WAR. 

Place. Date. Fed. Con. Total. 

Wilson's Creek, Mo. . ..Aug. 10, '61 5,400 10,175 15,575 

Lexington, Mo Sept. 18-20, '61 3,600 18,000 21,600 

Belmont, Mo Nov. 7, '61 3,114 5,000 8,114 

Pea Ridge, Ark Mar. 7, '62 10,500 16,202 26,702 

Prairie Grove, Ark Dec. 7, '62 14,000 10,000 24,000 

Helena, Ark July 4, '63 4,129 7,646 n,775 

Westport, Mo Oct. 23, '64 20,000 9,000 29,000 



THE "REYNOLDS' MANUSCRIPT" ON STERLING 
PRICE AND THE CONFEDERACY. 



HISTORY OF THE) MANUSCRIPT. 

Thomas C. Reynolds, Governor of Missouri from 1840 
to 1844, Lieutenant-Governor under Governor Claiborne 
F. Jackson's deposed administration, and after Jackson's 
death the Confederate claimant to the Governorship of 
Missouri until the close of the Civil War, was among the 
many prominent Southerners, officials, soldiers, and pol- 
iticians who, not long after Lee's surrender and the col- 
lapse of the Confederacy, betook themselves to Mexico 
to live. 

On the death of Ex-Governor Reynolds all of his pa- 
pers, documents, etc., were sent to his relatives, the well- 
known Savage family of Baltimore, Maryland, many of 
them expressly left to his nephew, Hon. George Savage, 
of that city. 

In later years, on carefully examining this valuable 
collection, Mr. Savage found in it a most remarkable doc- 
ument, unfortunately left unfinished, in which, almost 
immediately after the close of the war, Ex-Governor Rey- 
nolds had written out, in surprising detail, much of the 
inner history of the Confederacy, especially as that history 
related to the State of Missouri, that State's relation to 
the Confederate Government, and General Sterling Price's 
connection with that Government, its Army, and its 
armed invasion of Missouri. 

»75 



176 The Battle; oe Westport. 

Immediately on recognizing the value of this elab- 
orate narrative, Mr. Savage took steps for its preservation 
by donating the original, in Ex-Governor Reynold's own 
handwriting, to the Missouri Historical Society, and it is 
to-day preserved in the Society's building, 1600 Locust 
Street, St. Louis, Mo., as one of its most remarkable and 
valued treasures. 

The Manuscript amounts to the equivalent of 128 
typewritten pages and covers the entire political and 
military career of General Sterling Price up to his selec- 
tion by the Confederate authorities as the commander of 
the invasion of Missouri. That selection and the reasons 
therefor narrated in full, it was evidently the intention of 
the writer to continue his account of the invasion under 
General Price's command, but the writing ceases in the 
middle of a sentence and a page, and was never com- 
pleted. The manuscript is accompanied by certain let- 
ters between Ex-Governor Reynolds and General Price, 
Major Henry Ewing, etc., and by a copy of Reynolds' 
open letter "to the public," dated at Marshall, Texas, 
December 17th, 1864, from which quotation is made in 
the preceding pages. 

On learning of the intended publication of this ac- 
count of the Battle of Westport, the Librarian of the Mis- 
souri Historical Society kindly granted permission to con- 
sult this most valuable document and to make such quo- 
tions, etc., therefrom as might be germane to the subject. 
No portion of this narrative has heretofore been made 
public. The portions given below are the opening par- 
agraph and the narrative of the reasons for the final se- 
lection of General Price for the leadership of the Missouri 



The Battle oe Westport. 177 

invasion. Every word is as found in Ex-Governor Rey- 
nolds' handwriting, save as abbreviated names ("P." for 
Price, etc.), are given in full. 

"GENERAL STERLING PRICE AND THE CONFEDERACY. 

"City of Mexico, 10th March, 1867. 
"I propose in this memoir to state, partly from mem- 
ory, and partly from letters and memoranda, and with 
entire impartiality, the connection of General Sterling Price 
with the military and civil affairs of the Confederate 
States and the State of Missouri, during the late Civil 
War, in explanation of the course pursued toward him by 
their respective authorities; the true reasons for which 
had, to a great extent, to be kept as 'secrets of State,' 

during the continuance of the war itself 

"In deciding on a commander for the Missouri ex- 
pedition, two considerations weighed, and necessarily so, 
which are remarkably illustrative of those defects in the 
Confederate people and government, which, perhaps more 
than any other two separate causes, contributed to their 
failure to secure independence. 

"One was this: However disputed was General 
Price's military capacity, there could be none as to his 
skill as a politician and especially as a military demagogue. 
His curiously composite staff, with its ramifications and 
correspondents both inside and outside of the Army, and 
a specific organ in Mr. Tucker's newspaper at Mobile, 
formed a powerful machinery for puffing General Price 
himself, and unscrupulously and often falsely attacking 
everybody who stood in his way, or became the object, 
justly or not, of his or their jealousy and dislike. A 



178 The: Battle; of Wsstport. 

species of terrorism was exercised or attempted over 
everyone who could influence General Price's fortunes, 
especially over the Missouri Congressmen and others 
connected with Missouri or Trans-Mississippi affairs. 
Generals McCulloch, Van Dorn, Hindman and Holmes, 
successive commanders of the Arkansas District, Gen- 
eral Pemberton, commanding General Price in Missouri, 
Governor Jackson, General Harris, members from Mis- 
souri of the Confederate Congress, and even President 
Davis had been successively the object against which it 
had been, with more or less success, employed. The 
favorite, almost exclusive mode adopted, most sillily, by 
General Price and his friends for advancing his fortunes 
was attack and abuse of, and terrorism over, instead of 
efforts to gain over, conciliate or secure, those who could 
advance him. The sole exceptions to this rule of con- 
duct were Senator Peyton, General H. K. Smith and my- 
self, and even we were only partially so. Senator Peyton 
was a decided 'unfriend' of General Price, but too for- 
midable as a popular orator, and favorite of the army, 
for General Price's friends to attack him hastily. The 
disposition to bully me was checked in the manner before 
related; that to assail General Smith began to be ex- 
hibited in July, 1863, in a conversation Major John 
Tyler, volunteer aide of General Price, had with me at 
Little Rock; I closed the conversation by stating, with 
some vehemence, that as long as I sustained General 
Smith I should treat an attack on him, direct or indirect, 
precisely as I would an attack on myself. It was well 
understood, from my conversation with Major Snead, 
heretofore related, that I should meet any such attempt 



The Battle oe Westport. 179 

at terrorism by an effective counter -terrorism directed 
against the officers themselves engaged in it. I heard 
nothing more of attacks on General Smith until after the 
Missouri campaign ; then the Price faction endeavored to 
make up for lost time. But the terrorism above men- 
tioned had produced one effect clearly; however it may 
have diminished the number of General Price's friends, 
it had made most men, especially military officers, indis- 
posed to expose themselves to the public abuse and both 
public and secret attacks sure to be directed against any 
one supposed, whether correctly or incorrectly, to stand 
in the way of General Price. 

"A constant piece of tactics of General Price's par- 
tisans was in his success to claim all the credit for him, 
in his failures to lay all the blame on somebody else, and 
in any failure of his superiors to claim that there would 
have been no failure had he commanded. He ostenta- 
tiously claimed a preference over everybody else in com- 
manding an expedition to Missouri. Inevitably there- 
fore, any other commander, if successful, would be 
treated as having stolen his thunder, and be persecuted 
therefor, or if unsuccessful, be doubly damned for having 
failed where General Price would certainly have suc- 
ceeded. Any commander placed over him in such an 
expedition would have to suffer the same attacks which 
had been directed against McCulloch, Van Dorn, and 
Pemberton. I have the decided impression that this 
state of things had much to do with General Buckner's 
disinclination to command such an expedition; but I 
cannot now remember whether I gathered it from his 
language or heard it from others. 



i8o The Battle; of Westport. 

"The other irregular consideration which had to be 
duly weighed was the dread by the Richmond government 
of political dissensions, and the interference there of mere 
politicians in purely military matters. 

"President Davis himself had been, both by nature 
and education, not at all subject to any such dread, and 
inclined rather to underestimate than exaggerate the 
weight due to political considerations in determining on 
military matters. But the constant trouble the 'Price 
imbroglio' had given him, the project to depose him in 
1862, and the plan of Governor Rector of Arkansas and 
others, in that year, of making the Trans-Mississippi 
Department independent of the Confederacy, had, as 
both General Smith and I believed, produced in him a 
continuous fear of so fatal an event, and consequently a 
great desiie for calm and harmony among the restless pol- 
iticians and turbulent elements of that section. Better 
informed on the ground itself, General Smith and I had 
no such fear. But we shared the President's desire for 
a calm and harmony, and felt that sound policy demand- 
ed every reasonable effort to prevent the discouraging 
and demoralizing effect on the Richmond government of 
any dissensions or popular excitement in the Trans- 
Mississippi Department. 

"Now it so happened, as our ill luck would have it, that 
harmony and an exultant feeling of confidence in our 
military leaders had just been produced by the retirement 
of General Holmes and the repulse of the Federals in 
Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, when the controversy of 
General Taylor and the Louisiana politicians, with Gen- 
eral Smith, and that of Governor Murrah of Texas, 



Thf, Batti^ of Westport. 181 

backed generally by the politicians of that State, with 
General Magruder, arose to disturb us. To add to these 
elements of discord, a controversy with so violent a man 
as General Price — especially, as I considered (though as 
the fact was unknown to General Smith, he could not be 
influenced by it) in view of the Edwin Price connection — 
was to be avoided if possible. This was especially the 
case, as Colonel Bryan, of General Smith's staff, had re- 
cently returned from Richmond, and stated that the ad- 
ministration there evidently 'afraid of General Price,' 
i. e., desirous of avoiding all trouble or controversy with 
him. That administration, unlike Mr. Stanton, President 
Lincoln's War Secretary, had not seen that no risk is too 
great to secure absolute subordination among the military. 

"Under all these difficult circumstances, and from 
these mixed political and military considerations, I gave 
it to General Smith as my opinion that the command of 
the expedition should be given to General Price ; that the 
best and most reliable division and brigade commanders 
should be furnished him. I told General Smith that 
while giving him this opinion, I must not be considered 
as urging it on him; that he should decide solely on his 
own judgment and responsibility; but that whatever his 
decision, I should sustain him, both with the President 
and the public, in adopting whatever the difficult and 
delicate circumstances might suggest to him." 

(Having concluded the subject of the selection of 
General Price, the Manuscript was evidently intended to 
proceed with the history of his invasion, but breaks off 
in the middle of the second sentence after the above quo- 
tation, and was never completed.) 



INDEX 



OF INDIVIDUALS AND TROOPS MENTIONED. 

(No attempt is made in this Index to indicate every mention 
of the Individuals and Troops listed therein, as some names — Price, 
Curtis, Shelby's Division, etc. — occur on nearly every page. Every 
individual and every body of troops mentioned in the preceding 
pages is to be found in the Index, however, all troops being enumer- 
ated under the various names by which they chanced to be known 
or alluded to, and each being indexed both as to Organization and 
the principal mentions made of each in the narrative.) 

A. 

Page. 

American Knights of the State of Missouri 28 

Ampudia, General 12 

Anderson, Captain " Bill" 44 

Anderson, Maj. Martin 57 

Anderson, Captain W. L 162 

Anderson's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion 162 

Anthony, D. R 70 

Arkansas Troops: 

Arkansas Battery, Blocher's 162 

Arkansas Battery, Hughey's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry Battalion, Anderson's 162 

Arkansas Cavalry Battalion, Harrell's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry Battalion, Witherspoon's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry, Carlton's 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, Crawford's 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, Dobbin's 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, Forty- fifth 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, Forty-seventh 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, Forty-sixth 165 

Arkansas Cavalry, Gordon's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry, Gunter's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry, Hill's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry, Lyles' 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, McGhee's 162 

i83 



1 84 , Index 

Arkansas Troops — Continued: Page. 

Arkansas Cavalry, Monroe's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry, Morgan's 161 

Arkansas Cavalry, Rogan's 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, Second 161 

Arkansas Cavalry, Second Federal 171 

Arkansas Cavalry, Witt's 162 

Arkansas Cavalry, Wright's 162 

B. 

Barker, Lieutenant H. L 166 

Beauregard, General G. T 20 

Beekman, Colonel E 38 

Bent, Governor Wm 15 

Benteen, Lieutenant-Colonel F. W 17 1 

Benteen's (Winslow's) Brigade 128 

Beveridge, Colonel J. L 170 

Blair, Colonel C. W 167 

Blair's Brigade 167 

Bloomer, Orderly 58 

Blunt, Major-General J. G 166 

Blocher's Arkansas Battery 162 

Bragg, General Braxton 20 

Breckinridge, General 20 

Brown, B. Gratz 37 

Brown, Brigadier-General E. B 170 

Brown's (Phillips') Brigade 170 

Brown, John, Jr 1° 

Burbridge, Colonel Jno. Q 163 

Burnes, Captain J. T 65 

C 

Cabell, Major E. C 21 

Cabell, Brigadier-General W. L ™ l 

Cabell's Brigade I ° I 

"Cabell's Division" l6 5 

Carlton, Colonel Chas. H 162 

Carlton's Arkansas Cavalry 102 

Carpenter, Captain Robert 160 

Carney, Governor Thos 4" 

Catherwood, Colonel E. C 170 

Clark, Brigadier-General Jno. B., Jr 103 

Clark, Major M.L . *3 

Clark, Lieutenant W. B. , • • ■ • l6 7 



Index. 185 

Page. 

Chariot, Major-General C. S 166 

Coates, Colonel Kersey 169 

Cockrell, Colonel F. M 24 

Cody, Wm. F 70 

Coleman, Colonel W. 165 

Collins, Captain R. A 164 

Collins' Missouri Battery 164 

Colorado Battery, Independent 167 

Colorado Cavalry, Second 167 

Colored Battery, Second U. S. Light Artillery 143 

Colton, Col. G. A 167 

Connor, Lieutenant J. D 164 

Cox, Lieutenant Colonel S. P 44 

Crandall, Colonel Lee, 162 

Crawford, Colonel Wm. A 162 

Crawford' s Arkansas Cavalry 162 

Crittenden, Lieutenant-Colonel T. T 17° 

Curtis Major-General Samuel R 166 



D. 

Davis, Jefferson 17 

Davies, Lieutenant-Colonel J. F 163 

Dee, Captain E. W 122 

Deitzler, Major-General Geo. W 166 

Dobbin, Col. A. S 162 

Dobbin's Brigade 162 

Dobbin's Arkansas Cavalry 162 

Dodge, Captain Jas. H 157 

Dodge's Battery 157 

Doniphan, Colonel A. W 13 

Douglas, Captain 14° 

Dragoons, First U. S 13 

DuBois, Colonel J. V 170 

Draper, Lieutenant-Colonel D. M 17° 

Dunlavy, Corporal Jas 15° 



E. 

Eayres, Lieutenant George P . .143 

Elliott, Colonel Benjamin 164 

Eppstein, Lieutenant-Colonel J. A .65 

Eves, Colonel G. P 170 

Ewing, General 34 



186 Index 

F. 

Page. 

Fagan, Major-General Jas. F 161 

Fagan's Division 161 

Fenn, Colonel W. P 38 

Fishback, Brigadier-General W. H. M 50 

Fisk, Brigadier-General C. B 39 

Ford, Lieutenant-Colonel Barney 163 

Ford's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion 163 

Ford, Colonel J. H 167 

Ford's Brigade 167 

Forrest, General 26 

Freeman, Colonel T. R 163 

Freeman's Brigade 163 

Freeman's Missouri Cavalry 163 

Fristoe, Colonel E. T 163 

Fristoe's Missouri Cavalry 163 

G 

Gill, Lieutenant Edward 166 

Gordon, Colonel Anderson 161 

Gordon, Colonel F. B 164 

Gordon, Colonel Wm 168 

Gordon's Arkansas Cavalry 161 

Gove, Captain G. L 58 

Grant, Brigadier-General M. S 65 

Grant, General U. S 27 

Gravely, Colonel J. J 171 

Greene, Colonel Colton 163 

Grover, Captain Geo. S 61 

Grimes, Major Jno 44 

Gunter, Lieutenant-Colonel T. M 161 

Gunter's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion 161 

H. 

Hall, Colonel John H 15 

Halleck, General 21 

Hardee, General 20 

Harrell, Lieutenant-Colonel Jno. M 161 

Harrell's Arkansas Cavalry Battalion 161 

Harris, Captain S. S J 63 

Harris' Missouri Battery 163 

Harvey, Surgeon Philip 157 

Hildebrand, Colonel H 38 

Hill, Colonel Jno. F 161 



Index. 187 

Page. 

Hill's Arkansas Cavalry J 6i 

Hillerich, Lieutenant A I 7 I 

Hindman, Major-General T. C x 73 

Hinton, Captain R. J *68 

Hogan, Colonel A. C 167 

Hogane, Captain J. T 163 

Hogane's Engineers' Company *63 

Houston, Captain G. M *7i 

Hoyt, Colonel Geo. C *43 

Hoyt, Lieutenant-Colonel George H 166 

Hubble, Colonel J. B 168 

Hughes, D. W 144 

Hughey, Captain W. M 161 

Hughey's Arkansas Battery *6i 

Hunt, Major R. H 166 

Hunter, Colonel D. C 164 

Hunter's Missouri Cavalry J 64 

Hynson, Captain H. C 163 

Hynson's Texas Battery . 163 

I. 

Illinois Troops : 

Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, Seventeenth 17° 

Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 132c! 37 

Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 1 34th 37 

Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 138th 37 

Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 140th 37 

Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 142a 37 

Infantry, Second U. S 19 

Iowa Troops: 

Iowa Cavalry, First 1 7° 

Iowa Cavalry, Third 171 

Iowa Cavalry, Fourth 17 1 

J- 

Jackman, Colonel S. D 164 

Jackman' s Brigade 164 

Jackman' s Missouri Cavalry . .164 

Jackson, Claiborne 19 

Jeffers, Colonel Wm. L 163 

Jennison, Colonel C. R 1 66 

Jennison's Brigade 166 

Johnson, Colonel A. S 168 



i88 



Index. 



Page. 

Johnson, Captain Curtis 109 

Johnston, General A. S 32 

Johnston, General Jos. E 26 

Jones, Major B. S 171 



K. 



Kansas City Home Guards 
Kansas Troops : 



169 



Kansas State Artillery, Second 167 



Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 
Kansas State Milit 



1, Second 168 

i, vSecond Colored 168 

1, Fourth 167 

1, Fifth 167 

1, Sixth 167 

i, Seventh 168 

1, Ninth 168 

1, Tenth 167 

1, Twelfth 168 

i, Thirteenth 168 

1, Fourteenth 168 

i, Eighteenth 168 

i, Nineteenth 167 

1, Twentieth 168 

i, Twenty-first 168 

Kansas State Volunteer Cavalry, Fifth 167 

Kansas State Volunteer Cavalry, Seventh 171 

Kansas State Volunteer Cavalry, Eleventh 166 

Kansas State Volunteer Cavalry, Fourteenth . . . .167 

Kansas State Volunteer Cavalry, Fifteenth 166 

Kansas State Volunteer Cavalry, Sixteenth 168 

Kearney, General S. W 13 

Kelley, Major George W 170 

Ketner, Major Jas 168 

Kitchen, Colonel S. G 163 

Knights of the Golden Circle -.28 

Knights of the State of Missouri, American 28 

Knispel, Captain C. P 122 

Knowles, Lieutenant D. C 167 



Lane, Jas 58 

Lawther, Colonel R. R 163 

Lazear, Lieutenant-Colonel B. F 170 



Index. 189 

Page. 

Lederberger, Major F. T 3 8 

Lee, General R. E 26 

Lowe, Colonel Sandy, 1 68 

Lyles, Colonel O. P 162 

Lyles' Arkansas Cavalry 162 

Lyon, Captain N 19 

Lusk, Maj. W. H 171 

M. 

Maclean, Adjutant-General L. A 161 

Malone, Major F. M 171 

Marcy, Colonel J. B 3 8 

Marmaduke, Major-General Jno. S 163 

Marmaduke's Brigade 163 

Marmaduke' s Division 163 

Matthews, Lieutenant "Bill" . 143 

Matthews, Lieutenant-Colonel H. M 170 

Maximilian, Emperor 33 

McCain, Colonel W. D 167 

McCoy, Capt. A. C - 78 

McDermott, Major Jno 170 

McFarland, Colonel P 168 

McFerran, Colonel Jas 87 

McKenney, Major T. 1 74 

McLain, Colonel W. D 167 

McLain's Battery 167 

McMahan, Lieutenant-Colonel Jno. F 171 

McNeil, Brigadier-General Jno. B 170 

McNeil's Brigade 170 

McCray, Colonel Thos. H 162 

McCray's Brigade 162 

McGhee, Colonel Jas. H 162 

McGhee's Arkansas Cavalry 162 

Merrill's Horse 171 

Miner, Lieutenant 143 

Miller, Madison, Brigadier-General 38 

Missouri Troops, Confederate : 

Missouri Battery, Harris' 163 

Missouri Battery, Collins' 164 

Missouri Cavalry, Third . .163 

Missouri Cavalry, Fourth 163 

Missouri Cavalry, Fifth 164 

Missouri Cavalry, Sixth 164 

Missouri Cavalry, Seventh 163 



190 



Index. 



Missouri Troops, Confederate : 



Page. 



Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 



Cavalry, Eighth 163 

Cavalry, Tenth 163 

Cavalry, Fifteenth 162 

Cavalry Battalion, Da vies' 163 

Cavalry Battalion, Fourteenth 163 

Cavalry Battalion, Schnable's 164 

Cavalry Battalion, Slayback's 164 

Cavalry Battalion, Williams' 164 

Cavalry, Eleventh 164 

Cavalry, Coffee's 164 

Cavalry, Elliott's 164 

Cavalry, Freeman's 163 

Cavalry, Fristoe's 163 

Cavalry, Hunter's 164 

Cavalry, Jackman's 164 

Cavalry, Perkins' 164 

Cavalry, Searcey's 165 



Missouri Troops, Federal: 



Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 
Missouri 



Eight Artillery, Second . 
State Militia Cavalry, First . 
State Militia Cavalry, Second 
State Militia Cavalry, Third 
State Militia Cavalry, Fourth 
State Militia Cavalry, Fifth . 
State Militia Cavalry, Sixth 
State Militia Cavalry, Seventh 
State Militia Cavalry, Ninth. 
State Militia Cavalry, Tenth 
State Militia Cavalry, Thirteenth 



Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 
Enrolled Milit 



a, Infantry, First 
a Infantry, Second 
a Infantry, Third 
a Infantry, Fourth 
a Infantry, Fifth 
a Infantry, Sixth 
a Infantry, Seventh 
a Infantry, Tenth 
a Infantry, Eleventh 
a Infantry, Thirteenth 
a Infantry, Thirty-third 
a Infantry, Fifty-first 
a Infantry, Fifty-second 
a Infantry, Eightieth 
a Infantry, Eighty-fifth 



171 
170 
171 
170 
170 
170 
161 

171 
170 
161 
170 

37 
37 
37 
37 
37 
37 
37 
37 
37 
37 
44 
44 
37 
37 
37 



Index. 191 

Page. 

Mitchell, Major W. B 171 

Montgomery, Colonel Jas 167 

Montgomery, Captain W. C. F 171 

Monroe, Colonel Jas. C 161 

Monroe's Arkansas Cavalry 161 

Moonlight, Colonel Thos 166 

Moonlight's Brigade 166 

Morgan, Colonel Thos. J 161 

Morgan's Arkansas Cavalry 161 

N. 

National Guard, St. Louis 38 

Nichols, Lieutenant-Colonel C. H 164 

Niederweser, Colonel T 38 

Norman, J. L 95 

O. 

Ord, General E. O. C 23 

P 

Palmer, A. T. 145 

Pape, Lieutenant Erich 34 

Parker, Lieutenant-Colonel W. B 38 

Parkman, Francis 13 

Pennock, Colonel Wm 167 

Perkins, Colonel Caleb 1 64 

Perkins' Missouri Cavalry 164 

Phelps, Colonel Jno. E 171 

Phillips, Colonel Jno. F 170 

Phillips' Brigade 170 

Pike, Brigadier-General E. C 37 

Plumb, Lieutenant-Colonel P. B 166 

Plumb, Maj. Wm 171 

Pleasanton, Major-General A. S 1 70 

Polk, President 12 

Polk, General 20 

Price, Major-General Sterling throughout 

Pritchard, Major J. H 167 

a 

Quantrill, W. L 44 

Quigg, Colonel M 168 

R. 

Rafety, Captain J. L 65 

Rankin, Colonel L. J 38 



192 Index. 

Page. 

Reiff, Lieutenant-Colonel A. V 161 

Reves, Colonel T 162 

Reynolds, Thomas C. 40 

Robinson, Lieutenant George T 49 

Rogan, Colonel Jas. W 162 

Rogan's Arkansas Cavalry 162 

Rosecrans, General 23 

Ross, Major 58 

S. 

St. Louis National Guard 38 

Sanborn, Brigadier-General Jno. B 171 

Sanborn's Brigade 171 

Schnable, Lieutenant-Colonel Jno. A 164 

Sehnable's Missouri Cavalry Battalion 164 

Searcey, Colonel J. T 165 

Searcey's Missouri Cavalry 165 

Shelby, Brigadier-General J. 164 

Shelby's Brigade 164 

Shelby's Division 164 

Shanks, Colonel David 164 

Sheridan, General Phil 59 

Sherman, General W. T 28 

Slayback, Lieutenant-Colonel A. W 164 

Slayback's Missouri Cavalry Battalion 164 

Slemons, Colonel W. F 161 

Slemons' Brigade 161 

Smith, Major-General A. J 37 

Smith, General E. Kirby 26 

Smith, Major J. N 167 

Smith, Colonel M. W 164 

Smith, Colonel W. A. J 38 

Snead, Colonel T. L 22 

Snoddy, Colonel J. S 167 

Stafford, Colonel E 38 

Stallard, Captain D. R 163 

Steele, General 24 

Sumner, Major 13 

Sutter, Captain J. J 171 

T. 

Taylor, General "Dick" 27 

Taylor, General Zachary 12 

Texas Battery, Hynson's 163 

Thomas, General 27 

Thompson, Brigadier-General M. Jeff 164 

Thurber, Captain C. H 171 



Index. x 93 

Thurber's Battery- 



Page. 
• I7 1 



Todd, Captain Geo ^| 

Tracy, Colonel F. M l68 

Treat, Colonel L. S fi 

Tyler, Colonel C. H j£ 

Tyler's Brigade 

V. 

Vahlkamp, Colonel 3 

Van Dorn, General Earl 

Van Horn, Colonel R. T j*y 

Veale, Colonel Geo. W x °° 

Vest, Geo. C 

W. 

Walker, Lieutenant-Colonel S. W l 7 

Walter, Major F % 

Wangelin, Colonel Hugo •*/ 

Watkins, Major O. M £* 

Webb, W. L A A 6 . 

Williams, Lieutenant-Colonel D. A *"^ 

Williams' Missouri Cavalry Battalion *°4 

Wilson, Captain Jno .' 

Wilson's Scouts "' 

Winslow, Colonel E. F ' 

Winslow's Brigade ' 

Whitney, C. W 3/ 

Wisconsin Troops: fi 

Wisconsin Battery, Ninth *"' 

Wisconsin Cavalry, Third *°° 

Witherspoon, Major J. L fi 

Witherspoon's Arkansas Cavalry Battahon *«* 

Witt, Colonel A. R Jjr 

Witt's Arkansas Cavalry 

Wolff, Brigadier-General CD tL 

Wood, Captain Carroll £ 

Wood, Lieutenant-Colonel R. C ^ 

Wright, Colonel Jno. C , 

Wright's Arkansas Cavalry 

Y. 

Young, Sergeant C. N l67 

Young, Captain Jas. H 5<i 

Z. 
Zimmerman, Lieutenant J.V l62 



JUL 1 1308 



